Gray Areas
by Epic Bad Ass
Summary: 10 years after the Oblivon Crisis, The Empire is on its deathbed, the provinces are in full revolt, A great war hero has turned traitor, and the ghosts of the past have awakened. All questions are finally answered in the explosive chapter Enemy Within.
1. Chapter 1: Inferno

The blast drove Bergen into the wreckage of what had once resembled a guard tower; all around him was the sound of the sound of war, the Imperial City was burning. Bergen's ears were ringing, it hurt to breathe, the smoke was burning his eyes, and he was fairly sure he had broken several ribs. Maybe I should just lie here for a few minutes or days and let everyone cut each other into tiny little pieces said a little voice in his head, Bergen was sorely tempted to take the advice, _get up, you don't have time to die_, with that, his senses came rushing back to him. Bergen groaned and picked himself up, all around him the Market District was on fire, buildings were collapsing, and bodies littered the streets. Bergen looked for his sword and saw it lying about 10 ft away; he picked it up and looked around, he needed to Rendezvous with the Legion forces held up at the Imperial Palace, 8 miles away.

"This might be difficult," mused Bergen

Just then a squad of Goblins rounded the corner, They glared at Bergen with pure hatred, screeching a war cry they charged at him, Bergen smiled the kind of smile usually associated with a mad man, and went to meet them.

-

Kyle Delanius had been through some tough scrapes and seen some messed up stuff, but this took the cake, the Goblins hadn't attacked the city from the east, west, north, or south, they had attacked from below. Utilizing the extensive system of tunnels beneath the city, they had blown massive holes in the streets and came surging out like a swarm of locusts. The Legion never saw it coming, they still played by the rules of war, playing fair, good clean fights and all that, they didn't realize that the rules of war had changed, along with everything else.

"How you fairing over there Tark?" said Kyle as he sliced the throat of a Goblin that got to close.

"Oh I'm bloody fantastic! Thanks for asking!" said Tark

Tark was a Dark Elf and the best marksman Kyle had ever seen, he could non-fatally pin a fly to a tree from 50 feet away, unfortunately, Tark ran out of arrows soon after the Goblins attacked, and was now swinging a battered sword that he found lying around. He and Kyle had been best mates since they were 12. Kyle finished off the last Goblin with a stab to the gut

"How much farther to the Arena?" said Tark.

"About a half mile, no telling how many Goblins between here and there though" said Kyle.

The Arena was home to world class cut throats, scoundrels, assassins, thieves, and the certifiably insane, and it was the safest place in the city. "Alright let's get moving"

The Oblivion Crisis orphaned both Kyle and Tark some 10 years previous. Tark's parents were killed when Mehrunes Dagon attacked the Temple of the One, Kyle's mother died giving birth to him and Kyle's father Mathias Delanius was an Imperial Battlemage he died closing an Oblivion Gate in Skyrim. Kyle and Tark met at a homeless shelter in Imperial City 6 months after the Oblivion Crisis, they have been rolling together ever since. Kyle and Tark turned a street corner,

"Damn it!" cursed Tark.

About 100 Goblins fighting 20 overwhelmed warriors were blocking their way,

"Throw the fire bombs!" yelled Kyle.

Fire bombs were made of compact fire powder, which was a nifty little substance the Mages Guild discovered about 7 years ago when excavating a Dwemer ruin, ever since then fire powder had been employed in weapons and mining. Tark swung a fire bomb into a cluster of Goblins where it detonated sending bits of Goblin flying in several directions, before the first bomb had even landed Tark sent four more flying into the Goblin ranks. Within seconds, the Goblins were running in confusion and terror, at which point Kyle, Tark, and the warriors finished them off. "

Thanks for the help lads! Names Irstaad" said a large Nord with a thick accent.

"My names Kyle and this is Tark".

"You boys saved my life, I hope to return the favor," said Irstaad.

"Anytime, maybe you can help us get to the Arena," said Tark.

Irstaad chuckled "I guess great minds think alike! That's where we were heading before these ugly buggers ambushed us," said Irstaad.

"Let's move out boys!"

-

The world has gone crazy thought Raze Lennox. It all started after the Oblivion Crisis, The Legions were in complete disarray, the Emperor was dead, the provinces were in uproar, and it got steadily worse from there. First, the great war hero General Vexes rebelled against the Empire and took four Legions with him. Then the provinces started revolting left and right, and without the strength to restore order, the Legions began withdrawing to Cyrodil. And finally the Goblins, for hundreds of years they were considered of negligible interest to the Empire, Living in caves, tunnels, and abandoned mines, always warring among themselves or being hunted for sport, that was before Radek. Radek was an anomaly among Goblins; he was smart, charismatic, and dangerous, he got the Goblins to stop fighting among themselves and forged them into a nation, he told them to fight the ones responsible for their lives, the ones who forced them to live in the most horrible places on Tamriel, the ones who hunted them for fun, the ones who treated them like vermin, us. Yes, the world had indeed gone crazy.

"Captain Lennox!"

Lennox came out of his line of thought and looked around; a young soldier was holding out a dispatch. Lennox held out his hand and soldier handed over the dispatch. Wonderful thought Lennox as he read, over 200 soldiers were cut off and surrounded in the Elven Gardens District, they would not be able to rendezvous with the forces here at the Imperial Palace, a counter attack is looking more impossible every minute.

"Good work soldier, report to Lieutenant Javier, you'll be under his command" said Lennox,

"Yes Sir!" said the soldier.

Lennox went to give the news to General Stormbringer at the Palace; General Stormbringer earned his name for his distinctive brand of fighting. Stormbringer was raised by Nordic Shamans, and he had an excellent grasp of elemental magic, he would use wind and lightning to hammer enemy positions, his aides said when he got angry little storms would float above his head, Lennox doubted it.

"General Stormbringer, Captain Lennox reporting sir" said Lennox.

"At ease Lennox, what do you got for me?" said Stormbringer.

"The remaining Imperial Guard in the Elven Gardens are cut off, they won't be able to rendezvous" said Lennox.

"Perfect" muttered Stormbringer,

"We'll be making are move in 2 ½ hours, make sure the troops are ready" said Stormbringer.

"Yes sir"

-

Burnock knew how to do one thing and one thing only, kill, and he was very, very good at it. He had fought in hundreds of battles and had killed thousands, he was a monster, and he had no delusions about it. Radek saw the potential of the Goblin's talents and had made him commander of the Goblin forces in Cyrodil, he had proven to be a brutal commander, who would use any means and go to any extremes to destroy his enemy.

"General! The cowards have holed themselves up in the Temple! The doors are made of solid ebony, we can't break them down," said a Goblin soldier.

"Then we will destroy the Temple, have the soldiers go beneath and plant fire bombs on the foundation, we will bring it crashing down around them," said Burnock.

Burnock smiled, the attack had been executed flawlessly, the Goblin forces had emerged in three locations, the Market, Talos Plaza, and Elven Gardens within the first hour of the attack the Legion was forced to retreat all the way to the palace. Now all that remained to do was overwhelm the vermin defending the Arena and the Goblins could attack the Palace from all sides, today the Empire would die.


	2. Chapter 2: Shadows

Redguards are always at their best during battle, Bergen knew there was truth to the old saying, He had sliced, blasted, and beat his way through hundreds of Goblins on his way to the Imperial Palace; he hadn't felt so alive since the Oblivion Crisis. Bergen had been in the service of the Empire for nearly 40 years first as a Legionnaire, then as a member of the Blades, then as a Shadow Operative, a member of an organization that didn't technically exist. He had seen more death, war, and treachery than most people could hope to see in a dozen lifetimes, he had done many terrible things in the name of the Empire and the greater good, Bergen was always ready to do the necessary thing, it still didn't help him sleep at night.

"Commander! More Goblins!" said one of the soldiers Bergen had picked up as he made his way through the market district.

"Archers take out the ones in the back! Everyone else pick a target and engage!" shouted Bergen

A goblin came charging at Bergen with its spear; Bergen kicked the spear out of its hands then broke its neck with a back kick. Five more goblins came charging at him, with swords and axes, Bergen's right hand began to glow pale blue as he summoned magika, when they were within 10 feet of him he fried them with lightning, Bergen wrinkled his nose at the smell of burned ozone. Bergen pulled out his sword and was soon in among the goblins, slicing through them like a hot knife through butter. Soon there were only 12 Goblins left they broke ranks and fled in terror.

"Archers! Take them out!" shouted Bergen

And then there were none

-

It has been said that more blood had been spilled on the sands of the Arena than in every war combined, might not be an exaggeration thought Red Mary as she surveyed the grounds outside the Arena. Red Mary was the Green Team Arena champion she was what some people might call crazy, but she was one of the most vicious fighters on Tamriel or Oblivion, she wielded a rare weapon, the double ended sword, or Berma, as she liked to call it. She had Blood red hair, wore black leather armor, and was about 6 feet tall

"Itsss quite an interessting sssite izn't it?" said Zaquarl, a tiger striped Khajiit Red Team gladiator, referring to the thousands of people currently camped outside the Arena stadium setting up fortifications and sharpening weapons.

"Got that right Fluffy," said Red Mary

Zaquarl's fur rose up, Red Mary always had a gift for getting under his skin, he did not enjoy being called pet names

"_You know Mary _----" Zaquarl was cut off in middle of what was going to be a _really_ good comeback

"Open the Gates!" boomed the Watchman on top of the wall

The gates to the Talos Plaza began to part and 22 warriors came through, 2 of them a Dark Elf with a scar running down the left side of his face and a tall Imperial with blonde hair peeled off and came up to Zaquarl and Red Mary.

"My names Kyle, and this is Tark, Do you know whose in charge here?" asked the Imperial

"Is it talking to us?" said Red Mary

"I think it iz," said Zaquarl.

"Strange, I didn't know swamp monkeys were capable of intelligent speech," said Red Mary.

Tark howled with laughter

"Swamp Monkey? Is that really the best you could come up with?" said Kyle.

"On short notice, yessss" said Zaquarl

"Fair enough" said Kyle

"The person in charge is the Grand Champion, Darksword, but he's kinda busy right now, so if I could take a message, I'm sure he'll get right back to you," said Red Mary.

"Forget it," sighed Kyle

"Could you at least tell us where to restock on ammo?" said Kyle

"Right over there Swamp Monkey" said Red Mary pointing

"Thanks" said Kyle and moved off with Tark

"I like him," said Zaquarl

Red Mary patted him on the head

-

Tark felt complete again, he always felt naked without at least 100 arrows slung over his back, he now had 200 in two quivers, and 20 fire bombs hung on his waste.

"You do realize that if you get anywhere near a fire, they will be picking pieces of you off the street for a year, right?" said Kyle

"I like to be prepared" said Tark

"For what? 3 dragons and a Giant?" said Kyle

"You never know," said Tark

Kyle chuckled, "we should probably get something to eat, we're gonna be in for one hell of a battle" said Kyle

"Oh excellent, I'm in the mood for a Guar steak, with some Ginger steak sauce" said Tark

"I'm afraid you might have to settle for maggot stew and moldy bread," said Kyle looking at the large cauldron, which was filled with what looked and smelled suspiciously like feces

"I'm not that hungry," said Tark

"Me either" said Kyle

"Kyle! Tark!" shouted a thick accent

Kyle and Tark looked around and spotted Irstaad and his warriors sitting around a fire 50 feet away,

"Hey Irstaad! Can we get some of whatever you're eating?" said Tark

"Of course lads!"

What he was eating did not turn out to be much better than the stew would have been, but what he was drinking wasn't bad. Irstaad was in the middle of reciting a story in which he single handedly defeated 100 Xivali and sealed an Oblivion Gate, when a rather short Bosmer came over, the shortness wasn't what caught Tark's attention, It was that it was riding on top of the largest Minotaur Tark had ever seen

"Greetings Gentlemen, my name is Gareth, and this is Braxant," said the Bosmer in a squeaky voice

Tark and Kyle's mouths dropped,

"Is that a Wood Elf riding a Minotaur? Because I don't feel that drunk," said Irstaad

"Braxant and I are Blue Team heroes in the Arena," explained Gareth

Tark finally found his voice "How the blazes did you train a Minotaur?" said Tark

"I didn't" said Gareth, and walked away with Braxant

After that, everyone sobered up, and started to think of the battle to come, which was really depressing.

-

The Gates of to the Market District opened up and nearly 50 soldiers lead by a Redguard with the insignia of an Imperial Commander on his armor came marching through and came to a halt in front of Captain Lennox, who immediately sprang to salute

"Sir!" shouted Captain Lennox

"Take me to General Stormbringer" said the Redguard

"Yes sir"

-

General Stormbringer was in the Elder Council chambers, studying charts of the Imperial City and wondering how he was going to pull a victory out of this mess when a face he hadn't seen in 10 years walked in, General Stormbringer stared for several seconds

"Didn't think you made it out of Skyrim" said Stormbringer

"There is a lot of that going around these days," said Bergen

"So you're an Imperial Commander this time?" said Stormbringer

"Something like that" said Bergen

"You have a habit of showing up at just the right time, I'm glad you're here, we have work to do" said Stormbringer

-

Burnok had gathered all his forces at the Gates to the Arena; it was time he thought, time to start a new Empire from the ashes of the old

"BREAK DOWN THE GATES!" he roared.


	3. Chapter 3: Bloodbath

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, was the sound from the Gates; it was _really_ starting to annoy Darksword. Darksword had been the Arena Grand Champion for 4 years now ever since he had decapitated the previous Grand Champion in battle. However, while he made a first class warrior, he was no General, so he kept his battle plan simple; kill the enemy, extra credit if you do it inventively. Darksword came from a long line of Orc knights, but while all his brothers and sisters decided to pursue a career in the service of the Empire and the greater good, Darksword had his heart set on a career in the entertainment industry. So when he was 14 he entered the Arena in Orsinium and had been slicing his way steadily through the ranks ever since, until he reached the top, Grand Champion. He now had nowhere to go but down, a fact that Darksword found slightly depressing.

"Darksword! Darksword! Darksword!" cheered the crowd as he climbed down the staircase of the Stadium

"Time to kill some goblins!" Roared Darksword

The crowd went crazy with cheers and battle cries; this was going to be a good fight, mused Darksword

-

Lark had always been very smart as far as Goblins go, that was probably his curse he thought bitterly. Lark was an engineer, he had helped plan out the attack on Imperial City, by mapping out the tunnels beneath, he doubted anyone but himself could have figured out how to get over 15,000 Goblins beneath the Imperial City at one time. He was far too valuable to be fighting in the upcoming battle! Nevertheless, Burnock thought differently, Burnock said he should "be proud to fight for his race" and that if he didn't get his arse into some armor and picked up a weapon he would kick him so hard his children would be born with his boot print on their butts. So Lark was now at the front, watching a bunch of idiots trying to bring down a Reinforced steel gate with a wooden ram.

"That's not going to work!" shouted Lark

"Go knock over that statue, It's made of almost pure ebony, use it to break the gate" said Lark

The soldiers went to obey his command, idiots he thought bitterly, I shouldn't be here he thought, I should be back in Darkwater, why did Radek ever make that idiot Burnock commander of the forces here?

-

Red Mary was practically salivating by the time the gates finally split open, she was charging into the Goblins even as thousands of arrows were flying overhead, she didn't care, she wanted blood. She swept Berma in a long flourish taking off the heads of 3 Goblins, then blocked 4 arrows in another flourish, laughing in pure joy, she flipped over the head of a large goblin decapitating him in mid air, then plowed into a cluster of Goblins, sending body parts flying in every direction

-

Kyle hadn't been using magika until now, he wanted to hold it in reserve, but now his hands were glowing bright green as he sent a massive blast of green fire scorching through the Goblin ranks. Kyle's father had been an extremely powerful battlemage and he taught Kyle a lot about war magic and swordsmanship before he was killed in Skyrim 10 years ago. Kyle directed the blast of green fire with his mind and had it burn a clear path through the goblin ranks, at which point Kyle, Tark, and a hundred other warriors including the Grand Champion went charging through, their goal was to find Burnock the Butcher, and finish him.

Kyle had used up all his magika on the blast of fire, and was now cutting through hundreds of extremely angry, scorched Goblins, he was using two swords to get the job done. His swords were moving faster than the eye could see, mostly out of panic.

"I haven't had this much fun in ages!" screamed Irstaad as he swung his battleaxe into a Goblin.

"You're crazy Irstaad!" shouted Kyle as he very narrowly missed decapitation at the hands of one massive Goblin.

"Aye, but it's a good kind of crazy!" shouted Irstaad.

Kyle kicked with all his strength at knee of the goblin who tried to decapitate him, and heard a sickening crunch.

"RAAAAH!" the goblin roared in agony, shortly before Kyle collected his head.

"Does anyone see The Butcher?" Kyle shouted.

"No, but with this much blood being spilled he's bound to show up soon!" shouted Tark.

-

Burnock swung his massive battleaxe into an Imperial then pulled it out and cut the legs out from under 4 more in a flourish

"Keep pushing through!" he shouted

An orc came charging at him with a sword, Burnock raised his leg and smashed him in the head with his foot, the orc didn't get up again.

"Where's Lark!" He shouted

That whiny little pain in the ass was really starting to annoy him; he was supposed to have brought up the Ballistae twenty minutes ago and he still hadn't showed up, with out artillery, It was starting to prove very difficult to push through.

Suddenly a projectile landed 20 feet away from Burnock, in the Goblin ranks and blew up killing 18 goblins, It looked like the ballistae was finally firing.

"Gods damn it! I'm going to kill Lark!" Roared Burnock.

-

"You complete bloody idiots!" screamed Lark, who was starting to snap.

"You just attacked are own troops!" screeched Lark.

"It wasn't our fault the strap snapped and the shot went wild!" shouted the artillery crew.

But, Lark wasn't listening; Burnock was going to kill him for sure.

"Damn it all to hell!" he screamed to no one in particular.

Suddenly an arrow zipped past his ear and embedded its self in the back of a Goblin soldier.

There weren't supposed to be any enemies here, thought Lark frantically, then he turned around and saw a hundred more arrows coming towards him along with several hundred Legionnaires all shouting a war cries, Lark ran for cover, and saw a building about 20 feet away and hid.

-

It looks like it might work out after all thought General Stormbringer as he sent a bolt of lightning crashing down on the Goblin's Ballistae, he had waited until all the goblins were in one place attacking the Arena, then he came in behind them, they were now effectively trapped between a rock and a hard place. The Legionnaires swept through the Goblins rear flank before they even realized they were being attacked, but once they lost the element of surprise, they would be in for one hell of a fight, thought Stormbringer.

"Forward!" roared Stormbringer as he sent several more bolts of lightning cascading down on the Goblins.

-

Zaquarl was a true master of the martial arts, he didn't like weapons, except for fire bombs, he didn't use them, he preferred his claws. Zaquarl's claws were tipped with Adamantium, he got it done at the Arcane University several years ago, the effect was that his claws were sharp enough to rend armor, and that was what he was now doing. Zaquarl gave a deafening war as he pounced on top of a massive Goblin and ripped out its throat, then moved on to the next one severing its carotid artery with a quick slash causing blood to gush everywhere, the Goblins were soon running in terror. Zaquarl couldn't have stopped if he wanted to, he had the bloodlust now, it's what made the Khajiit such ferocious warriors. He tackled the retreating Goblins delivering a crippling kick to one, snapping the neck of another, and rending a massive gash in the last one, Zaquarl then raised his head and sniffed the air for his next prey.

-

The battle was raging all around him, he could not remember the last time he felt so _alive_, The Arena started to lose interest to him after he became Grand Champion, but this was something new, thought Darksword, as he swung his massive black claymore in an arch.

"Come on!" roared Darksword in delight at the Goblins, who were afraid to come within reach of his blade.

"Don't tell me you've come all this way for a fight, to suddenly get cold feet!" he said.

The Goblins glared at him and charged, they were all killed with on sweep of his sword, Darksword laughed manically.

"This is a good fight!" shouted Darksword, as he moved on through the crowd of Goblins; he got separated from the warriors soon after the young Imperial scorched an opening through the Goblin ranks, he'd been trying to find Burnock ever since, he was spoiling for a good fight.

An arrow suddenly buried itself in his back, he grimaced and turned around, a group of Goblins had found there courage and were charging at him, Darksword smiled, this was a good day.

-

"Demon!" Shrieked the goblins as Red Mary was cutting through them.

Wherever she went people were suddenly missing heads and limbs, she was an unstoppable force of nature, most people simply assumed she was crazy because of a bad childhood, but Red Mary's parents weren't bad, in fact she came from a long line of aristocracy, she was simply crazy because that was how the Gods made her.

Red Mary laughed madly as she decapitated another Goblin, her black leather armor was covered in blood, she saw Zaquarl about 100 ft away clawing his way into the Goblin ranks and went to meet him.

"Having fun!" she shouted.

"A blassst" Zaquarl's bloodlust had subsided somewhat.

"How many have you killed?" said Red Mary.

"42, you?" said Zaquarl.

"56" said Red Mary.

Zaquarl stared "You lie!"

"Do not!" said Red Mary.

"Oh real----" just then the body of a Goblin landed in between them.

They both turned around and saw Braxant swinging a rather large hammer, and knocking goblins into the air, while Gareth was on top of his shoulders hurling down lightning bolts and fireballs.

"How many have you and Braxant killed Gareth?" shouted Red Mary.

"116!" Gareth yelled back.

"Ssounds about right" said Zaquarl.

"Yup" said Red Mary.

-

Burnock was really starting to get agitated first, the Imperials had attacked his rear flank, then his advance in the Arena had been slowed to a halt, and he was slowly being pushed back, in short, he was losing.

"Form lines and hold positions! Do not yield a single inch!" ordered Burnock.

He needed to think, what could he do? Every single Goblin in the Imperial City was caught between the Legion and the warriors of the Arena. There were no reinforcements, the ballistae had been destroyed, his troops were running out of fire bombs and arrows, and his Shamans were out of magika. He did not have many moves left.

-

The Goblins had finally formed defensive lines and dug in, looks like Burnock has realized he isn't going to win this battle, thought Bergen. General Stormbringer had given Bergen command of 200 soldiers. It was his job to divide Burnock's forces by breaking through the middle of his lines.

"Commander, all archers and spellcasters have gathered at the front of the company," said Captain Lennox.

"Put them in V formation; they'll form the tip of our spear" said Bergen.

"Yes sir" said Captain Lennox.

Bergen went to join them at the front of the company, they all looked so young thought Bergen, but then again, they always did.

"When I give the order you are to fire everything you got at the center of the Goblin lines then charge into them, stick together, and watch each others backs, this is about to get nasty" shouted Bergen.

Bergen took a deep breath "Fire!" he roared, and then charged forward.

-

Things were not looking good for Kyle and Tark, and probably looking even grimmer for Irstaad and his warriors. Kyle and Tark had been deep in the Goblin ranks when they decided to form lines and dig in. They were currently cut off and surrounded with 36 other warriors, being attacked by Goblins from all sides. Irstaad and his warriors had gotten separated from the group, no one knew how they were fairing, or if they were still alive.

"Throwing a fire bomb!" shouted Tark, a small opening was created for a few seconds as goblins went flying through the air.

Kyle got an idea, "everyone throw your fire bombs in a straight line to the center! We're going to make for the enemy command post!" said Kyle.

Pieces of goblins sprayed down on the warriors as fire bombs detonated, the warriors rushed through the opening being made.

-

"General! A group of enemy warriors is making its way to the command post!" shouted a frantic goblin soldier.

Burnock turned to look, about 30 warriors led by an Imperial and a Dark Elf were blasting there way through the Goblin lines, Burnock strapped his axe to his back and picked up a huge long bow, strung an arrow and took aim at the Imperial.

-

Of the 20 warriors Irstaad had come to the Imperial City with only eight now survived. He had lost 12 good friends, people he had known for years. Irstaad could feel blood running down his forehead where a goblin had hit him with a mace, his muscles felt like they were on fire, and his vision was getting fuzzy at the edges, he was cut off and surrounded with his eight surviving warriors. They were pushing through the Goblin ranks as fast as they could, but they did not really have any idea where they were going.

"AAAHHH!" screamed a warrior, as he collapsed to the ground with five arrows sticking out of his back.

Another friend lost thought Irstaad.

Two more collapsed, one from blood loss, the other from a blow to the head. Irstaad did not know how much more he could take, then suddenly he was through, he looked around and saw an enormous goblin stringing a huge bow, Burnock the Butcher! Irstaad had finally found him, and wished he hadn't, then he caught sight of something in the distance, Kyle! Burnock was going to kill Kyle! Irstaad had had enough.

"NO YOU DON'T!" he roared, he tackled Burnock as his remaining warriors engaged the goblins around him.

Burnock was suddenly knocked sideways and the arrow went wild, he kicked off the thing that tackled him. It was a Nord with blood pouring down its face and a look of hatred in its eyes. It lifted its axe but Burnock knocked it out of his hands and kicked him to the ground, Burnock took out his axe and let it hover over the Nord.

"Let me die with my axe in my hands" said Irstaad.

"Why?" said Burnock "It won't make any difference."

"There is more honor in it," said Irstaad.

"Honor is a fool's prize, what good is honor to the dead?" and with that Burnock swung his axe into Irstaad's chest.

-

Bergen and his soldiers had broken through the enemy lines and were approaching the command post. Bergen had the soldiers periodically rotate to the center of the formation so they could catch their breaths. The goblins spirit was thoroughly broken, they were fleeing rather than fighting, the battle was nearly won.

"Huzzah!" cried the soldiers as they broke through to the command post.

There was another "Huzzah!" from the other side of the command post, Bergen looked and saw thirty Arena warriors had broken through as well, and were cutting down Goblin Officers left and right.

Bergen searched for Burnock, but he was nowhere to be found.

-

Burnock had abandoned the command post when he saw the Legion forces breaking through. He had only one move left to make, before he left he ordered all Goblin forces to push through the Legion lines at all costs, it was a suicidal order of course but it would allow him and maybe a hundred other goblins to escape into the tunnel systems beneath the city. From there he could return to Darkwater and plan the next move.

-

Lark had been trying to make his way to the tunnel system when suddenly an arrow embedded itself in his right ankle. Lark fell to the ground.

"RAAAAH!" Lark screamed in fear and pain.

Lark turned on his back and saw a squad of Legionnaires moving in on him, one of them was stringing another arrow.

"Wait!" shouted Lark.

"I have information! I can help you!" said Lark.

"What do you think Captain Lennox?" said the Archer, still keeping his bow trained on Lark.

"Here, see" Lark shook out the pack he had been carrying; it contained war documents and blueprints of goblin tunnel systems, including Darkwater base.

"Take him prisoner," said Captain Lennox.

The soldiers moved to obey.

-

Kyle Delanius was staring down at the body of Irstaad, he wished he had gotten to know the Nord better, he had made him laugh, he bent down and closed Irstaad's eyes, this battle had taken its toll in lives. Kyle and Tark had found the bodies of Irstaad and five of his warriors at the Goblin command post, Irstaad was a hell of a fighter to have made it so far on his own.

Kyle turned around and saw a redguard staring at him with wide eyes.

It wasn't enough that he saw ghosts in his dreams, apparently he had to start seeing them when he was awake to, thought Bergen.

"Can I help you?" said Kyle.

"May I ask your name?" said Bergen.

"Kyle Delanius" Bergen did not often register surprise, but he did now.

"Wh----"

"Bergen!"

"We've done it my man!" boomed General Stormbringer.

"The Goblins have been routed," said Stormbringer.

"General Stormbringer may I introduce Kyle Delanius" said Bergen, never taking his eyes off Kyle.

Stormbringer did not quite mask the shock that passed through his face.

"Good to meet you son," said Stormbringer, holding out his hand.

Kyle shook the hand, wondering what the hell was going on.


	4. Chapter 4: Secrets

_Mathias's son_, there was a fine line between coincidence and fate thought Bergen, thinking of the events of some ten years previous. Bergen shook his head, he had to focus on the now, even though the Goblins had been routed, half the Imperial City had been destroyed in the process, and the Empire was no nearer to victory in this war.

"Commander Bergen!" shouted a soldier

"General Stormbringer requests your presence immediately"

Bergen made his way to the Elder Council chambers to meet Stormbringer; there was no Elder Council anymore, they had all either been killed, committed suicide, or turned against the Empire. Chancellor Ocato had disappeared; the pressure of the job probably got to be too much, with the provinces rebelling, the Goblins declaring war, and General Vexes deserting along with four Legions. General Stormbringer was now the de facto leader of what was left of the Empire.

"Bergen, I have good news," said Stormbringer

"We may have a way to turn the tide of the war," said Stormbringer

"We got these off of a captured Goblin engineer," Stormbringer pointed to the papers lying on the 50-foot wide Elder Council table.

"They are blueprints to Darkwater base; we haven't even been able to find it until now. I've had our engineers look over them; they detail 4 currently unused entrances to the underground facility." Said Stormbringer

"And that's not the best part, the engineers say we can bring the whole damn place crashing down on the Goblins!" said Stormbringer in obvious delight

Bergen was listening intently

The plan was for a team of 40 soldiers to go in using the unused entrances and plant powerful fire bombs in four separate locations. The Mages Guild had enchanted them so that when one bomb, the master bomb, went off the other three would detonate, the master bomb could be detonated two ways, manually, or from a distance with an amulet.

"War documents taken from the prisoner indicate that there are well over 500,000 goblins in Darkwater, if this mission succeeds we will have destroyed the Goblin war machine in Cyrodil, it will take months for Radek to get another army over here" said Stormbringer

"I want you to handpick the team, and lead it yourself, this is our only chance, we must not fail." Said Stormbringer

"If this mission is to succeed, there is one man I'm going to need," said Bergen

"Who?"

-

Jas Rendar had listened in silence to the explosions, screaming, and clashes of metal on metal going on up above for 16 hours. When it stopped, he was curious to see who had won, not that it would make any difference to him. Jas Rendar had spent the past 6 years in the Imperial maximum-security prison in Imperial City for "Crimes against the Empire." There was a loud crack as the door to his prison wing opened up.

"Open the cell," ordered a voice

There was a sudden blast of light from a lantern; it took Jas a moment to adjust to it

"Jas Rendar?" said a man in full Legion armor

"What can I do for you?"

"I have orders to bring you to the Imperial Palace."

-

Red Mary watched as Darksword signed the papers of resignation from his position as Grand Champion of the Arena with some confusion.

"So why exactly are you doing this?" said Red Mary

"I've done all there is to do in the Arena, its time to move on to bigger and better things." Said Darksword

"Like what?" said Red Mary

"Like joining the war, look around you, the Imperial City is in ruins, we can't run from what's happening, but we can go meet it head on and laugh in its face," said Darksword with a grin

Red Mary had nothing to say to that, she opened her mouth, then closed it

"See you around Mary," said Darkwsword, he then turned to leave

-

Lennox was having trouble with what he was being asked to do. He had always been an Idealist; he joined the Legion so he could help people, he never fought without provocation, and he always did it in an honorable fashion. This just seemed wrong, no matter how he spun it he was going to kill more than a half million people, and yes he thought of them as people. Lennox despised the fashion in which he was being asked to do this, it was cowardly to sneak into your enemy's home and plant a bomb, you should always fight your enemy face to face. Lennox would of course do this act, even though he knew it was terrorism, because he was a good soldier, and a good soldier always did his duty, but he knew that once he did this the world would never be the same.

-

Burnock made his way through miles of treacherous tunnels with the 62 other surviving goblins of the failed attack on the Imperial City. There were originally 112 survivors, but the tunnels were dangerous, in addition to the dangers of cave-ins, there were dark creatures to worry about, trolls, mad ogres, will o the wisps, and several things that hid themselves so well and moved so fast that they couldn't be identified. His soldiers were tired, hungry, and scared out of their wits, Burnock was surprised they hadn't turned on him yet.

"General, the doors out of the caves are blocked!" said the Goblin in the lead

"How many fire bombs do we have left?" said Burnock wearily

"6" responded the Goblin

"Put them in front of the doors and detonate them." Said Burnock

"The blast will roast us!" said the goblin

"Then I suggest you back up" said Burnock coldly "Don't make me tell you again."

The goblin was more afraid of Burnock than being killed, he gathered up the fire bombs and put them in front of the doors, then backed up as far as he could and threw a torch on them; the resulting explosion opened the doors as well as killed 13 goblins. Burnock did not flinch a muscle, he stepped out into the cold mountain air and breathed deeply, he stared at the stars for a few moments and thought about what he was going to do when he returned to Darkwater, and what Radek would do to him when he learned of his failure. There were few things Burnock feared, Radek was one of them.

Burnock turned and saw the soldiers gathering up the bodies of the dead goblins

"Leave them," he said

They glared at him with something akin to loathing, and dropped the bodies of their comrades.

"Let's move out," said Burnock

-

Tark was through his fourth Guar steak and was considering a fifth, he had recovered the meat while helping a crew of Legionnaires dig people out of collapsed buildings.

"That was good," sighed Tark

He looked over at Kyle who wasn't eating his steak; Kyle had been brooding ever since Tark had seen him talking to that redguard after the battle.

"What's up with you?" said Tark

"Something has been nagging at me," said Kyle

"What?" said Tark

"I'm not really sure," said Kyle

Tark raised an eyebrow

"Forget about it" said Kyle and started eating his steak

Tark let it go

Tark looked out over the Waterfront district, the Waterfront was the only part of the city to escape the battle, so the Legion had set up a tent city across it, where everybody who lost there home was currently residing. Tark looked out over the water; the nearly full moon was reflecting over it, along with thousands of stars, it was a fantastic site. A Legionnaire came up to Kyle and Tark.

They

looked up from their dinner

"The two of you are requested at the Imperial Palace," said the soldier

"What's this regarding?" said Tark

"I don't know sir, I'm just a messenger" and with that the Legionnaire left

"Well I needed to walk off this food anyway," said Tark

-

Jas Rendar was staring at a face he had hoped never to see again

"Hello Bergen" said Jas

"I need your help," said Bergen

"What? No, 'Hi Jas!' 'How have you been?'" said Jas

"Hi Jas, how have you been" said Bergen

"Oh I've been great! Been spending the past 6 years in this cozy little resort, the service wasn't that great, but the food was excellent" said Jas

"I need your help," repeated Bergen

"I'd tell you to go to Hell, but we both know that's where we're heading anyway," said Jas

"I didn't betray you Jas," said Bergen

"No! Of course not!" said Jas

"I can get you a full pardon," said Bergen

"You should have been the one rotting in Prison!" snapped Jas, abandoning his façade of calm

Bergen and Jas stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, Jas closed his eyes and brought his breathing back under control.

"What do you need," he said in a flat voice

-

Zaquarl and Red Mary were playing a friendly game of cards with a group of sailors on the docks of the waterfront, and cleaning up pretty good.

"They're cheating!" shouted a sailor

As Red Mary laid down another royal flush

"Don't blame us if you bit off more than you can chew big boy," said Red Mary

"We're going another round!" shouted the sailor

"What are you going wagerrr next, your ship?" said Zaquarl

The sailor reached for his saber, just then a Legionnaire came up, probably saving the sailors life

"Excuse me; are you the ones known as Red Mary and Zaquarl?" said the Legionnaire

"That's right, you looking for an autograph?" said Red Mary

"No, you're requested at the Imperial Palace," said the soldier

"Never thought I'd be invited back after what happened last time," said Red Mary

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" said Zaquarl hissing with laughter

-

Kyle and Tark were seated around the massive Elder Council table, along with nearly 40 other people

"Swamp Monkey!" shouted a voice

Kyle looked around and saw Red Mary waving at him

"Hey Mary" said Kyle

"Do you know why we're here?" said Tark

"Nope!" shouted Red Mary with a smile

Bergen entered the chamber and jumped onto the gigantic table along with a pale looking Breton and strode into the center

"I am Commander Bergen! I know you are all wondering why you are here, the answer is simple, you are here because I want you to help me kill over 500,000 goblins."

That got some laughs from across the table

"Sure thing, would you like that done by next Friday!" scoffed an Arena warrior

"No, I want it done by tomorrow night," responded Bergen

Everyone stopped laughing as they realized he was serious.

"I suppose you have a plan for how we are to accomplish this feat?" said another warrior

"We are going to go into Darkwater, and bring the whole place crashing down around them," said Bergen

That peaked the interest of everyone seated around the table

"The plan is to go in using four abandoned entrances, and plant the four most powerful fire bombs ever made in four separate locations, once we are out we will remote detonate them with this amulet," Bergen showed them an amulet with a round, glowing red stone in the middle.

"Anyone who does not wish to take part in this mission, is welcome to go hide under a rock for the rest of the war," said Bergen

That did it, Bergen had challenged the honor of everyone in the room, if they didn't join the mission they would be considered cowards, and honor was everything to these people, it was all they had left.

Nobody moved to get up from their seats

"Very well then, Major Rendar here will take you through the plan,"

-

Jas Rendar had shaved, cut his hair, and scrubbed away the layer of grime that had accumulated on him over the past 6 years; he now resembled Nobility with the exception of his pale skin, which had not seen sunlight since the day he was locked up. He had been given back his old commission when he "volunteered' for Bergen's mission, and a full pardon was awaiting him once he had served 6 months in the Legion.

"Stealth is going to be the weapon of choice for this mission, we will all be wearing light weight black leather armor," Jas showed them the armor. "Take notice of the black gem in the middle, if you hit this a cloak will be activated. However there is only enough power in the Gem for 30 minutes of invisibility, so use it sparingly, when the danger has passed palm the gem again to deactivate the cloak," said Jas

Next he showed them the master bomb, and how when detonated all other bombs would follow, then he introduced the team leaders

"The teams will be lead by me, Commander Bergen, Captain Jax, and Captain Lennox,"

"Any questions?" said Jas

"Yeah! Are we getting paid?" said someone from the Arena

"5000 drakes per person," said Jas

-

_Mathias's son,_ Bergen found himself looking at Kyle again, he wasn't sure what part he had to play in the events to come, but until Bergen knew, he was going to keep him close by.

-

Burnock was back in Darkwater barking orders; all around Darkwater goblins were rushing, sharpening blades, and getting ready for battle. When his forces were ready Burnock would then set out to burn every city in Cyrodil to the ground, he had to make a grand gesture and soon, once Radek found out about his failure he would order Burnock's recall to the Dragontail mountains, Burnock did not like to think about what would happen after that.


	5. Chapter 5: Darkwater

It had taken the team 15 hours to make their way up the mountains, it would be dark soon and all the Goblins would be in Darkwater, Bergen was observing his team's entrance into the complex through a looking glass.

"Its clear, lets get moving," he said

He and nine other soldiers including Kyle made their way to the entrance; Bergen had purposely made it so that Kyle would be in his unit.

"Tread carefully, I don't need to tell you what will happen if the Goblins are alerted to our presence," said Bergen, then they were in

-

The air was getting warmer and fouler as Jas and his team were making there way through the entrance tunnel, Jas held up his hand, and the team stopped moving, they were nearly out of the entrance tunnel, he heard voices in the distance. He got down near the ground and peaked around the corner, up ahead were six goblins sitting around a fire, Jas signaled his team to trigger their cloaks.

They took out their daggers and made their way to the goblins quickly and silently, they then covered the goblins mouths with their hands and slit their throats in the blink of an eye, they made a sickening gurgling sound before dieing. Jas pushed it to the back of his mind and consulted his map.

"This way" he whispered

He and his unit moved deeper into the heart of Darkwater

-

Captain Lennox and his team had made their way into the heart of Darkwater, up ahead was a bridge, and below it were the lights of tens of thousands of goblins sharpening their swords

"I've never seen so many goblins in one place," whispered Tark

"They're going to be in for a nasty surprise," whispered a soldier

Lennox was feeling sick, he hadn't wanted to do this in the first place, and seeing this many goblins, Lennox was hit with the full effect of what they were doing. But it was too late now, it was us or them thought Lennox, maybe if the Empire had just treated the goblins as people from the beginning none of this would be happening right now.

"Be careful making your way over the bridge if those goblins notice us we are totally scrued," said Lennox

The group slowly and silently made their way across the bridge, with the master bomb

-

Red Mary and Zaquarl were practically running through Darkwater with Captain Jax and his unit. Captain Jax was a razor, he would march barefoot over burning coal if he was ordered to, he was quite a piece of work, even by Red Mary's standards.

"You do realize that it really doesn't matter if we get to our mark an hour before everyone else, right?" said Red Mary

"We have to accomplish the mission!" snapped Captain Jax

"I'm ssstarting to sssee why our unit wasn't entrusted with the master bomb," muttered Zaquarl as he jumped over a boulder to keep up with Captain Jax

"What was that!" snarled Captain Jax

"I sssaid I sssee why Captain Lennox was given the master bomb," said Zaquarl

"Captain Lennox was given the bomb because his team has the safest path!" said Captain Jax

"Denial," said Red Mary

"Excuse me?" said Captain Jax

"I just mean to say that if you weren't such a fanatical, Commander Bergen might have given our team the bomb," said Red Mary with a shrug

Captain Jax turned red with anger

"Lis---!" started Captain Jax but just then, an arrow flew overhead, a squad of goblins had seen them coming and were charging.

"Take them out before they sound the alarm!" shouted Captain Jax

The team charged into the goblins, the battle was over in less than 10 seconds

"I think we should proceed without talking," said Zaquarl

"No arguments here" responded Captain Jax with a glare

-

Burnock was in the command structure of Darkwater, from here he could issue orders anywhere in Darkwater, using an extensive system of vacuum tubes Burnock could place a message in a container and put it in a vacuum tube and have it delivered anywhere in Darkwater, the technology had been obtained from a Dwemer ruin.

"How are preparations coming?" said Burnock

"We will be ready to move out in 6 hours," said the aide

"Excellent," said Burnock

By now, word was sure to have reached Radek of Burnock's failure at Imperial City, he needed a victory and quick, a messenger carrying the orders for Burnock's recall to the Dragontail Mountains was sure to be on its way. The only way out of this was to obtain a massive victory, thought Burnock

-

Bergen passed Kyle the looking glass, Kyle looked through it, 75 feet away were 12 goblins, that wouldn't be a problem to handle, what was a problem was that they were right by the controls of a drawbridge, a drawbridge they had to pass in order to plant the bomb, and the teams cloaks had already been exhausted.

"So how are we going to do this Bergen?" said Kyle

Bergen was silent for a few seconds "Archers how long would it take you to takeout all the goblins?" said Bergen

"At least 10 seconds" said the three archers in the unit

"Too long, they can reach the controls by then" said Bergen

"Archers I want you to hold back here while we move in, the second we engage the enemy, start shooting" said Bergen

The rest of the team moved in while the archers strung their bows and stood ready

"Attack as soon as I engage the enemy," said Bergen

Just then a goblin turned at just the wrong time and saw the team creeping up on them, he pointed and screamed for about a half second before an arrow landed in his throat, Bergen and the team charged forward, but it was too late, a goblin had pulled the lever and the drawbridge closed.

"Wait don't kill him!" shouted Bergen, a soldier stopped short of decapitating the last goblin

"How do we bring the drawbridge down?" said Bergen to the goblin

The goblin chuckled "You might as well kill me now, I won't tell you anything," said the goblin

"Yes, you will," said Bergen flatly

Bergen reached down and put his hand on top of the goblins head, and what looked like a surge of electricity flowed from it, the goblin screamed in mortal agony and then slumped over after five seconds, Kyle looked away, disgusted

"I know where to go," said Bergen as if nothing had happened "there is a control room about 2 clicks away from here, we're going to need to split up," said Bergen

"Kyle, you will continue along with the rest of the team and plant the bomb when the bridge drops, you're in charge,"

"I'll go open the drawbridge, good luck," said Bergen

-

Jas and his team were approaching their mark, when three arrows flew overhead and a very loud gong started banging

"Damn it!" he cursed

"We need to move faster!" shouted Jas

There was no hiding it now, the goblins knew they were here, Jas and his team rounded the corner, there were crates of explosives lying on the ground next to what appeared to be a bottomless drop off. It looked like the goblins had been trying to clear out a caved in tunnel, Jas knew what he had to do, this was about to get bad, he thought

"Light those explosives and throw them off the drop off!" ordered Jas

-

A large piece of rock fell where Lennox had been seconds before, Lennox knew that one of the bombs couldn't have detonated prematurely, they all had to detonate together for anything to happen, still rocks were falling off the ceiling all over the place, and to make matters worse the goblins knew they were here. Lennox's team had already fought three groups of them while dodging rocks, at least the rocks were a good distraction, without them his team would have been swarmed by now.

"Move faster!" ordered Lennox

Two of his soldiers had already fallen; however, they were almost to their mark.

"Move!" shouted Tark as he crashed into a soldier saving him from being impaled by a slab of rock

"This is a Gods Damn mess!" roared Tark

-

Red Mary's opinion of Captain Jax had changed somewhat, he might be an ass, but he was a hell of a fighter

Red Mary sliced a goblin clean in half with her double-ended sword,

"This is a Frakking mess!" she said

"You're not lying!" said Captain Jax as he sliced through three goblins

Their team was currently dancing their way through goblins and falling rocks, but they were closing in on their mark, Zaquarl punched out the last goblin.

"Lets move!" roared Captain Jax

Captain Jax took a step forward and suddenly a spear came hurling down the path and embedded itself into his stomach, he ripped it out and through it into the throat of his attacker, and then fell to the ground.

Red Mary quickly knelt beside him

"ack-accomplish…the mission," he told her, coughing up blood

He grabbed her shoulder "get our people out alive" he whispered, and then closed his eyes

A tear fell from Mary's eye, she then stood up and said in a steady voice, "We have a job to do, let's move out"

-

The drawbridge dropped with a loud clang, just in time too, Kyle was getting tired of playing dodge ball with rocks.

"Let's go!" he said

He and his team ran across the bridge, their mark was right ahead of them

"Plant the frakking bomb! And lets get the hell out of here!" ordered Kyle

-

Bergen had made his way to the control room and opened the drawbridge, dancing around falling rocks the whole time, he had a feeling Jas had something to do with this, it had his style written all over it. Bergen was making his way to the surface the hard way, through the Darkwater command structure, the officers there would be evacuating with the rocks falling everywhere, and Bergen was not going to let Burnock escape again.

-

Jas was nearing the end of his patience, _I would have been better off in prison_ he thought bitterly, as he pushed a soldier out of the way in time to prevent him from being crushed.

"Major! We're at our mark!" said a soldier in relief

"Then plant the damn bomb, and lets haul ass!" shouted Jas

-

Burnock jumped out of the way as a boulder came crashing down behind him. _What the bloody hell is going on!_ Thought Burnock, The ceiling of the command structure had started to crumble, for apparently no reason, he had ordered the evacuation of the command structure, there was no time to get to the rest of Darkwater, they would just have to wait for the rocks to stop falling. His axe had went sliding across the floor when he dodged the boulder, he saw it some 15 feet away, at the feet of a redguard, the redguard kicked it to him.

"Defend yourself!" he shouted

-

Zaquarl and Red Mary had finally reached their mark along with the rest of their team

"Plant the bomb!" ordered Red Mary

"Then run like your tail's on fire," said Zaquarl

Captain Lennox and his team had reached their mark,

"Plant the---" just then a falling rock knocked Lennox to the ground, and sent the amulet flying, another rock crushed it

Everyone was silent for several seconds

"GODS DAMNIT!" roared Tark and hit the wall with his fist, fracturing a knuckle

"Tark, get everyone out of here, I'll stay behind and manually detonate the bomb," said Captain Lennox quietly

Tark just stared at him

"You've got 30 minutes, Get Moving," ordered Captain Lennox

Tark opened and closed his mouth "It was an honor to meet you," he said

Captain Lennox clasped him on the shoulder

"Go," he said

-

Burnock and Bergen circled each other slowly like two lions.

"Who are you?" said Burnock

"I'm exactly what you are; a monster," said Bergen and with that swung his sword at Burnock.

Burnock blocked the blow with his axe, and countered by trying to take off Bergen's head. Bergen ducked beneath the blow and sent a blast of lightning into Burnock's chest. Burnock flew back against the wall and Bergen pressed on the attack aiming a blow at Burnock's head, Burnock blocked it and kicked Bergen in the stomach. Bergen fell back several paces, and Burnock charged at him, at the last moment Bergen ducked to the side and held out his sword, Burnock went straight through it, and fell to the ground in two half's.

Burnock stared up at Bergen "Nice move" he coughed, and then died

Bergen left the room

-

Kyle and his team had made it to the rendezvous point and were waiting for the others; he was starting to worry when Jas Rendar and his team came out of the woods, he and Kyle exchanged nods, while the soldiers clasped each other on the backs and exchanged stories. Four minutes later Red Mary and Zaquarl showed up along with their team. _Where the frak was Tark!_ Thought Kyle frantically, just then Tark and his team showed up.

Kyle gave a laugh and slapped Tark's hand

"What the hell took you so long!" said Kyle

"The goblins objected to us leaving early," said Tark

"Where's Captain Lennox?" said Bergen who had just showed up out of nowhere

-

_This is it_ thought Captain Lennox; he could hear the goblins screeching no more than 50 feet away, the soldiers should have made it through by now, only one thing left to do, he turned to the bomb.

"May the Gods forgive me," he said, and detonated the bomb

-

It was both a fantastic and terrible sight watching a mountain implode on its self. The team was nearly choked in the dust cloud that followed, no one was smiling anymore, they solemnly saluted the remains of the mountain.

-

The goblin was running through the castle as fast as his legs would take him, up staircase after staircase, and down hall after hall, until he reached the doors of the briefing room, he burst through. Inside was a medium sized goblin with wiry muscles, he radiated strength, confidence, and power, he was staring down at a map of Tamriel.

"Lord Radek!" said the panting goblin

Radek looked up from the map

"Darkwater is gone!" said the frantic goblin, passing Radek a message

Radek read it

He closed his eyes, "The world has changed forever," he said quietly


	6. Chapter 6: 10 Years Ago

10 YEARS AGO - - - - - - - - - - - - BLUE MOON VALLEY, SKYRIM

-

There was a real beauty in the silence of snow falling at night, thought Mathias Delanius, Of course, it was a lot less beautiful when it wasn't snow falling, but ash from an Oblivion Gate. Mathias looked down at the town of Stormfall, Stormfall was one of seven towns in the Blue Moon Valley, and it was currently being occupied by Daedric forces. Imperial Special Forces Commander's Matthias Delanius and Carmine Vexes had been assigned the task of liberating it.

Mathias and Vexes looked over the troops standing behind them, there were 100 in all, and all looking hungry for blood,

"We are going to go in there, and we are going send those ugly bastards screaming back to Oblivion!" shouted Vexes to the troops

"We will strike them down with the fury of the Gods themselves!" roared Vexes

Mathias raised an eyebrow, Vexes was the toughest son of a bitch Mathias had ever met, Mathias then chipped in his part

"Look to the man to your left and the man to your right, watch his back, and he'll watch yours," said Mathias

"Lets move!" shouted Vexes and with that, they went charging down the hill. The soldiers broke through Stormfall's gates, and were in the town engaging the Daedric forces.

Mathias sent a blast of subzero wind at a pack of charging clanfear, turning them into ice sculptures, then charged a Daedroth and sliced off its arm with his sword, the Daedroth roared and knocked Mathias onto the ground with its remaining arm. Mathias flipped back on to his feet and this time took off its head.

Vexes was attacking the Dremora without mercy or fear of death, slicing through them with a ferocity that was both beautiful and frightening to behold, he was fighting with the weapons of the enemy, a cruel looking dremora longsword in one hand and a daedric dagger in the other. He jammed the dagger through the armor of one dremora, straight into its heart, and swung his long sword through the air and sawed another dremora's head in half diagonally. He saw a soldier get pierced through the shoulder and fall to the ground, the dremora above him preparing to deliver the final blow, Vexes held out his hand and snapped the dremora's neck with telekinesis, then made his way to the soldier and threw him over his shoulders, carrying him out of the action.

Mathias was surrounded by dremora and daedroth; all of them rushing up against him, Mathias quickly created a long string of lightning and twirled it around him like a whip, burning through the flesh, muscle, and organs of any daedra it touched. Soon all the Daedra had been incinerated, Mathias extinguished the whip, and engaged two frost atronachs. He dodged the blasts of frost and subzero wind, with the grace and agility of a master acrobat, suddenly his sword burned to life with a white hot flame and Mathias sliced through the atronachs, when they fell to the ground he released the spell and the sword went dark.

The whole battle took exactly 14 minutes, and then not a single Daedra was left alive, these were fairly low level Daedra thought Mathias, that would make the next part much easier, the civilians who had survived the occupation began coming out of their homes and cheering the Special Forces team.

"Now for the fun part," said Vexes

He and Mathias stepped in front of the Oblivion Gate in the center of town; the Legion had found that it was best to send in a small force, just two elite soldiers to close the gates. As they would be able to move faster through Oblivion, and the Legion could not afford to sacrifice 100 soldiers to close a single gate, they were stretched to the limit as it was.

"Let's get this over with," said Mathias, and stepped through

-

Each realm of Oblivion reflected the personalities of their respective princes. _Mehrunes Dagon must be one sick frak, _thought Mathias, the sky was swirling with blood red clouds, there were mountains of black volcanoes, surrounded bay an endless ocean of lava. The only plants that would grow were blades of dark red grass sharp enough to cut off fingers and thorny vines that reached out and tried to strangle you as you went by.

"Let's get to the Sigil Tower," said Vexes, referring to the menacing black tower in the distance with spikes protruding from it.

They took off at a run, cutting down the occasional scamp as they made their way to the tower. When they got there they kicked in the door and were met by about 30 Daedra, low level ones like in Stormfall, Mathias and Vexes cut their way through them, saving their magika for the bad asses that were sure to be guarding the Sigil Stone. They climbed the spiraling staircase to the top of the tower, passing several bags of flesh filled with gods knows what, Mathias and Vexes tried not to look at them. They were nearly to the Sigil Stone. This mission was surprisingly easy thought Vexes, the other four times he and Mathias closed a gate, they had to fight their way through 3 or 5 towers and an endless horde of foes to get to the stones, this was a welcome relief.

They approached the door to the top of the tower and it automatically slid open, Mathias raised an eyebrow at Vexes, usually they had to blast it down if they weren't lucky enough to find a key on a dead dremora, Mathias would has suspected a trap, except that his highly tuned danger senses weren't tingling. When they got into the Sigil room things got harder, inside were four Dremora Markynez, highly trained and ferocious warriors, they were surpassed only by Dremora Valkynez. Mathias and Vexes engaged the dremora. Vexes took the two on the right and Mathias took the two on the left.

Mathias blasted one dremora into the far wall with a blast of lightning; the dremora slumped over and didn't get up again. The second dremora aimed a blow to his head with its sword, Mathias blocked and charged forward, landing strike after strike until the dremora's block failed and it fell to the ground headless.

Vexes simply picked up both Dremora's with telekinesis and slammed them against the far wall with enough force to break their back's

Mathias and Vexes made their way to the Sigil Stone

"Your turn to touch the damn thing," said Vexes

Mathias reached out and touched the Sigil Stone, all around him, fire started swirling, then he and Vexes were in the cold night air of Skyrim, Mathias and Vexes vomited

"Gods I hate doing that," said Mathias

He and Vexes picked themselves up

"Commanders!" said a soldier

"We're fine sergeant," said Vexes

"No Sir, there's a man here to see you two, he has clearance from the highest command,"

"Take us to him," said Mathias

There was a redguard dressed all in black with a black cape talking to a couple of soldiers, he turned around and addressed Mathias and Vexes

"Hello, my name is Bergen," he said


	7. Chapter 7: Aftermath

It was night in the city of Skingrad, as the goblin crept through the shadows to the Green Dragon. The Green Dragon was one of the busiest taverns in the city, it was especially popular with the city guard, who loved to frequent it before and after their shifts, there were a couple of kids kicking a Red Ball back and forth in front of it, it was quite a peaceful setting. The Goblin crept up right behind the Green Dragon; he was sweating, and looked very nervous and scared.

"Shalok Sonar!" he cried, and then detonated the bomb strapped to his chest

The blast destroyed the Green Dragon, the alley in front of it, and sent a Red Ball crashing through the window of a neighboring building

-

_Shalok Sonar_, It was Ancient Goblin, it meant "for our dead brothers and sisters." It had been what goblins had been crying right before blowing themselves up in crowded areas for the past 4 weeks, ever since the Legion had blown up Darkwater, along with over 500,000 goblins. Since then the goblins had changed their tactics, with their greatly diminished numbers in Cyrodil they could no longer fight the Legion in open battle, so they started targeting civilians with bombs. The new tactics were proving effective, they were inspiring a wave of terror in the citizens of Cyrodil, the death toll from these attacks was at 1,783, and climbing.

-

"So Bergen, how the bloody hell do we fix this!" shouted General Stormbringer

Stormbringer knew how to fight an enemy in battle, he could flank him, he could hammer him with artillery, he could gut him with his sword. But he didn't have a clue how to stop these frakking attacks.

"The guards in the various cities through out Cyrodil have strengthened their security measures and doubled their patrols, in time we will decrease the effectiveness of these attacks as we learn how to fight them," said Bergen calmly

"I don't want to decrease their 'effectiveness', I want them to stop!" shouted Stormbringer

"Short of the enemy running out of goblins, I don't see that happening," responded Bergen

"78 people died in Skingrad last night! Including six kids, kids Bergen!" roared Stormbringer

Bergen closed his eyes, "I've seen the report," he said quietly

"But we can't stop the attacks; the goblins want to make us suffer for what we did at Darkwater, even if we defeated Radek, there would be no guarantee that these attacks would stop, they are easy to perform and don't take many people to carry out," continued Bergen

Stormbringer closed his eyes and brought his breathing back under control

"That's not the only reason I called you here," he said once he regained his composure

-

The fires had finally gone out in the Imperial City from the attack four weeks before, but the Legionnaires were still digging bodies out of the rubble, and hundreds of buildings were collapsed, it would probably take years to repair the damage from the battle. Monuments and buildings that dated back to the days of Tiber Septim had been destroyed; the Temple of the One however had taken no damage. It almost appeared as if the gods had saw fit to shield it from the battle, Tark was standing before it right now, thinking of the day the great stone dragon was created in the center of the Temple, the day his parents died. His father had been a historian working in the Imperial Museum, his mother was descended from a long line Morrowind merchants. They had been making their way home when suddenly 20 oblivion gates had opened up around the Temple of the One, hundreds of Daedra had come pouring from them, they were no warriors and were soon killed, Kyle, who was as good as his brother was his only family now. Ever since then Tark had vowed to make himself strong, to make himself into a mighty warrior, he hoped he had accomplished his goal.

"Quite an impressive sight isn't it?" said a priest referring to the great stone dragon

"Aye," said Tark

"Why are you here my son?" said the priest

"Not that you always need a reason to visit the Temple," chuckled the priest

"I guess I'm looking for guidance father, I've been having trouble sleeping at night, and I don't know why,"

"Well the Gods make good listeners, maybe you should tell them what's troubling you, they don't always talk back, but, sometimes it's good to get something off your chest," said the priest

Tark smiled, "I've heard that when you kill someone there is a cost, that it takes a piece of your soul," said Tark

"That's just poetic speaking, but guilt, guilt can cause you more pain than any wound of the flesh ever could," said the priest

"Do you have guilt my son?" said the priest

"I suppose I do," said Tark

"Then maybe the key to sleeping at night is to learn to let it go," said the priest

-

Kyle's muscles were straining as he tried to wrestle Zaquarl's paw to the table, Zaquarl seemed to be rather amused by the effort, he wasn't even trying. Zaquarl gave a theatrical yawn, and slammed Kyle's hand to the table.

"That's 3 out of 3," said the Khajiit

"You're a lot stronger than you look," said Kyle as he threw Zaquarl 10 drakes

"All Khajiit are, Zaquarl has been pulling this scam ever since I met him," said Red Mary

"What scam!" said Zaquarl in an indignant voice

"Hey you guys!" said Red Mary to the musicians playing in the corner of the bar

"Play something you can dance to!" shouted Red Mary; the musicians changed their song to something with a little more beat

"Let's go Swamp Monkey!" said Red Mary as she yanked a surprised Kyle out of his seat and on to the floor

"I don't really dance Mary," said Kyle

"You do tonight," said Red Mary

-

"Hey you!" said Zaquarl to a large Nord, "Bet you can't beat me in a game of arm wrestling!"

The Nord and his companions gave a hearty laugh and made their way to Zaquarl's table

"You're on!" said the Nord

-

"Just move like you're fighting your way through a swarm of enemies," said Mary to Kyle

"I didn't know dance instructing was one of your talents," said Kyle sarcastically

"Shut up!" laughed Mary punching Kyle in the shoulder

Kyle took Mary's advice and did a back flip on the dance floor, gathering the attention of a group of on lookers.

"See, you're getting it!" said Red Mary jumping over Kyle's shoulders

-

A Nord was rubbing his bruised hand

"That was a fluke!" he said

"Double or nothing!"

"As you wish," said Zaquarl

The Nord's companions were roaring with laughter, their friend was getting beat by a Khajiit ¾ his size!

-

The group of on lookers had surrounded Red Mary and Kyle, and were clapping their hands and cheering. Mary was standing over Kyle's head, on top of his hands, she jumped down and he caught her, swinging her around his waste and back onto her feet.

"This is only half as embarrassing as I thought it would be!" laughed Kyle

"Told you so!" said Mary as she flipped on top of a table, Kyle jumped up to join her, they grabbed hands and did a back flip together, the crowd went wild with whistling and hoots of approval.

-

"This is a scam!" roared the Nord before punching Zaquarl in the face, his companions joined in; Zaquarl sent one of them flying into a neighboring table.

An Imperial seeing this roared "BAR FIGHT!"

And smacked the Breton sitting next to him in the face with his mug of beer

The Bar then descended into chaos, the musicians sped up their playing to compensate for it. An Argonian hit an Orc over the back with a chair, the Orc responded by knocking out its teeth.

-

The table that had been holding Mary and Kyle cracked and they fell to the ground laughing hysterically. They looked around themselves, all around them people were wailing on each other with chairs and pitchers of beer, they looked at one another and grinned, then went to join the fray.

-

Kyle, Red Mary, and Zaquarl were roaring with laughter, they had been kicked out of the bar for "disturbing the peace," they'd be in jail right now if they weren't members of the Imperial Legion Special Forces, they were allowed a certain amount of leeway.

"I think I should take it easy on arm wrestling for a while," said Zaquarl hissing with laughter.

-

Jas Rendar was doing something he hadn't done for years; fishing. He was sitting over one of the docks in the Waterfront with his pole in the water, he doubted he would catch anything; still it was nice to just relax and look at the stars. He had been doing a lot of that since the Darkwater mission, he was catching up on lost time, six years of lost time, he doubted he would ever forgive Bergen for that. His pole gave a yank and he pulled it up, on the end of it was a small slaughterfish, to small to eat.

"Hey there little guy," said Jas,

He unhooked the slaughterfish and put it back in the water, where it promptly swam away.

-

"With the Goblin Army in Cyrodil destroyed we have to focus on other threats, such as the provinces revolting, and we still don't know what Vexes has been up to all this time," said Stormbringer

"It'll take a few months for Radek to get another army over here, and when he does we'll be ready for him, but we can't fight him, Vexes, and the provinces at the same time. I've already sent a team to spy on Vexes, you and your team are going to help stabilize the provinces," said Stormbringer to Bergen

"I'd be better suited to handle Vexes, considering my history with him," said Bergen

"It's that history I'm worried about," said Stormbringer

Bergen's eyes narrowed "Careful Stormbringer, there are some accusations I will not take, even from you, I've bled for the Empire for nearly 40 years in case you've forgotten," said Bergen

Stormbringer stared at Bergen for a few seconds, "I apologize, I shouldn't have gone there," he said

"What do you want me to do about the provinces?" said Bergen

"You are going to travel the provinces and assess the situation in each of them, try to stabilize them where you can; we are going to need their help to defeat Radek," said Stormbringer

"Where should I start?" said Bergen

"The Summerset Isles, the last time I checked the High Elves were still lightly loyal to the Empire,"

"My team and I will be ready to leave tomorrow afternoon," said Bergen

-

Tark was making his way back to the warehouse in the Waterfront District that the Legion had converted into barracks, he, Kyle, Mary, and Zaquarl, had been given positions as Lieutenants in the Special Forces after the Darkwater mission, the pay was good and steady, which was a nice change, and there was the promise of lots of adventure. He saw a dark figure creeping through the shadows to the barracks, _is that...?_ Tark unstrung his bow and took after it, he pulled back the string and sent an arrow into its back, it fell to the ground. Tark ran up to it and turned it over, it was a goblin with a fire bomb strapped to its chest, _what the hell happened to the world?_ Thought Tark.

-

Kyle, Tark, Mary, and Zaquarl were exchanging stories about the crazy night they had, when Bergen and Jas Rendar walked into the Elder Council Chambers. Seated around them were the 12 other members of their unit.

"Who's up for a trip to the Summerset Isles?" said Bergen


	8. Chapter 8: The Bird

In an effort to restore the Empire to full strength in time to combat Radek's forces, General Stormbringer had sent several Special Forces teams to the provinces, so that order could be restored. Bergen's team was to be responsible for repairing the situations in the Summerset Isles, Hammerfell, and Elsweyr.

-

The little girl looked at him with eyes wise beyond her years

"_Will you protect me Jas?_" she said

Jas Rendar woke up in a cold sweat; he had been dreaming the same thing he had been dreaming for 6 years, it never got any easier. He got up out of bed, and got dressed and shaved. They had arrived in the sprawling metropolis of Firsthold 3 days ago via the Mages Guild, they were currently being quartered in the massive skyscraper that was the Royal Palace, the High Elves were giving them the political two-step big time, their leaders kept delaying a meeting with his team. Bergen had given the team leave to explore the city while he worked on a solution, _Bergen_ he thought bitterly, he felt dirty just working with him again, but Jas Rendar was a practical man, this was a means to an end.

-

Kyle and Mary were walking along the docks of Firsthold. Firsthold was the height of civilization, it was a city of sprawling white skyscrapers with ornate designs on the sides, you could see hundreds of airships soaring through the sky and docking at the tops of the massive skyscrapers.

"Treasure!" said an old one-legged man

"I'm telling you there be buried treasure out there!" he was shouting at the crowd gathered around him

"Nutter," muttered Mary to Kyle

Somehow, the old man must have heard, even though he was 20 feet away because he threw the fishy stick he had been holding at the back of Mary's head where it collided with a painful "thud,"

"Crazy am I!" said the old man

"Don't think I won't take your other leg you crusty old relic!" shouted Mary, angrily

making her way to the old man

Kyle rolled his eyes; Red Mary always seemed to make a scene wherever she went.

The old man cackled madly, "Do you not know who I am! I'm Crazy Fred the pirate! Terror of the Seas!"

Kyle was fairly sure Mary's original assessment of the old man was correct

"Come on Mary, this guy is clearly out of his mind, can we just go?"

"Sure just one thing first" said Mary

She shoved the fishy stick the old man threw at her in his mouth then pushed him over the docks

"How do you like me now!" shouted Mary

Kyle grimaced, but the old man was laughing harder than ever, Kyle went to the edge and threw a rope over for the old man

"Sorry about that, my friend has a short temper," said Kyle

"He started it!" shrieked Mary

The old man grabbed the rope and gave it a hard jerk, which sent Kyle crashing down into the water

The old man was laughing so hard he was crying and he wasn't the only one, Mary was laughing hysterically as well

"How you feeling down there swamp monkey!" shouted Red Mary roaring with laughter

Kyle was less than happy; these things always seemed to happen to him whenever he hung out with her. Mary threw Kyle a rope he grabbed on and waited until she had a good grip then jerked her into the water with him.

-

Bergen was pacing up and down the docking bay of the Royal Palace watching the airships coming in and out.

"Got any threes?" said Tark who was playing Go Fish over an overturned crate with Zaquarl

"Go fisssh," said Zaquarl, Tark picked up a card

"Someone is blocking us from seeing the Altmer Leaders, and I don't know why. I think we're going to have to resort to subterfuge to get in," said Bergen

"There is going to be a ball tonight, the leaders will be in attendance, I think that will be our best opportunity to meet with them, we just need to figure a way in."

Tark was watching a party of colorfully dressed Khajiit diplomats disembark from an airship

"I think I have an idea," he said with a look at Zaquarl

-

Kyle, Mary, and Crazy Fred were sitting on the dock drying off, they had made up and were all laughing at one of Crazy Fred's jokes.

"A guy walks into a bar with his pet monkey. He orders a drink and while he's drinking, the monkey starts jumping all over the place. The monkey grabs some olives off the bar and eats them, then grabs some sliced limes and eats them, then jumps up on the pool table, grabs the cue ball, sticks it in his mouth and swallows it whole." Said Crazy Fred pausing to catch his breath

"The bartender screams at the guy, 'Did you see what your monkey just did?' The guy says, 'No, what?' 'He just ate the cue ball off my pool table - whole!' says the bartender. 'Yeah, that doesn't surprise me,' replies the patron. 'He eats everything in sight, the little twerp. I'll pay for the cue ball and stuff.' He finishes his drink, pays his bill, and leaves. Two weeks later he's in the bar again, and he has his monkey with him. He orders a drink and the monkey starts running around the bar again." Said Crazy Fred

"While the man is drinking, the monkey finds a cherry on the bar. He grabs it, sticks it up his butt, pulls it out, and eats it. The bartender is disgusted. 'Did you see what your monkey did now?' 'Now what?' asks the patron. 'Well, he stuck a cherry up his butt, then pulled it out and ate it!' says the barkeeper." Said Crazy Fred

"'Yeah, that doesn't surprise me,' replies the patron. 'He still eats everything in sight, but ever since he ate that damn cue ball he measures everything first!'"

Kyle and Mary roared with laughter

"Aye, I got that one off an old fishin' buddy of mine," said Crazy Fred

"So tell us about your treasure," said Mary

"Well you see that little island about a mile off shore?" said Crazy Fred, pointing

"Yeah," said Mary

"Well legend has it that there be a chest filled with treasure buried on that island, and I just so happens to have the map," said Crazy Fred

"Then lets go dig it up!" said Mary happily

"Come on Kyle! It'll be fun!" said Mary

"Ok, count me in," said Kyle

"Then it's a quest!" said Crazy Fred dramatically

"Come I'll take you to my ship, The Grand Duchess!"

-

"I feel ridiculousss," said Zaquarl

Zaquarl was dressed in the colorful robes of Khajiit royalty and had a crown of bright feathers on his head.

"What are you talking about!" said Tark

"You look magnificent! Like a king even!" said Tark

Zaquarl narrowed his eyes

"Well okay, you look like a walking rainbow, but we all have to make sacrifices," said Tark

"What sssacrifices are you two making!" growled Zaquarl at Bergen and Tark

"What, are you kidding me? We're your bloody man servants!" said Tark

He and Bergen were indeed dressed in the attire befitting servants. The plan was for Zaquarl to pose as the relatively unknown Khajiit Lord, Kasiim, and so gain access to the ball, and to the Altmer Leaders.

"Fine, let's start practicing," said Zaquarl, "Go get me a lemonade ssservant," said Zaquarl to Tark

Tark rolled his eyes and went to obey

"And make sure its cold!" Zaquarl called after him

-

Jas was walking through the Magicians Quarter, the section of Firsthold where you could probably find any magical item ever created, light, dark, or otherwise.

"Hey you there!" Jas turned around an old lady was beckoning to him

"Yeah you!" she said

Jas made his way toward her

"Come inside I'm going to read your fortune," she said beckoning to her shop

"I don't have much money," said Jas

"Did I ask for any?" said the old lady

Jas was curious; he followed her into the shop, it was filled with strange plants and objects in the center was an old wooden table with a Crystal Ball on it

"Sit down" she said

Jas sat and she put her hands around the Crystal Ball, it started swirling smoke, and through the smoke an image started to appear, a little girl, _Maria_

"Jasssss" whispered the image

"Is this some kind of joke!" shouted Jas

"She wants you to forgive yourself for what happened; she says you did everything you could," said the old lady

"What the hell do you know about it!" roared Jas

He upended the table, sending the Crystal Ball flying, and stormed out of the shop.

-

"Umm, Fred? You do realize the Grand Duchess is just a rowboat right?" said Kyle

"Don't listen to him baby, you're much more than just a rowboat." Said Crazy Fred to the Duchess

"Okay, all aboard!" said Crazy Fred

They all got aboard and Crazy Fred started rowing out, it was getting into the afternoon, it was quite beautiful out, the sun was coming through the clouds like beams of light, and there was a flock of birds flying overhead; Mary sat utterly relaxed staring at the sky and listening to the water slap the boat.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" said Kyle

Mary nodded

"Thank you," said Crazy Fred to Mary

"For what?" said Mary perplexed

"Most people ignore me because they think I'm crazy, it gets kind of lonely sometimes," said Crazy Fred

"But you didn't, thank you" said Crazy Fred

Mary was dumbstruck

"Umm …you're welcome," she said

Crazy Fred turned to look at the sky

"It sure is beautiful out," he said

-

"May I Introduce Lord Kasiim!" said Bergen

Zaquarl stepped up and handed his forged invitation to a very arrogant looking Altmer

"I've never heard of a 'Lord Kasiim'," said the Altmer suspiciously accepting the invitation

"You dare insult Lord Kasiim!" roared Tark, stepping forward and slapping the High Elf

Zaquarl narrowed his eyes menacingly and hissed softly, the color drained from the elf's face

"N-no m-my Lord! I meant no offense!" stammered the elf

Zaquarl affected a look of calm

"We will forgive your stupidity, open the doors," said Bergen

The elf muttered the spell that opened the massive ballroom doors and then they were in

-

Red Mary, Kyle, and Crazy Fred were walking through the palm trees on the small island

"So where's the treasure buried Fred?" said Kyle

Fred was making long steps and muttering to himself

"Right here!" he shouted, pointing to a spot on the ground

"Did anyone bring a shovel?" said Mary

"We won't need one," said Kyle

He raised his hand and pointed at the place Crazy Fred was indicating and the sand flew up into the air like a bomb had exploded beneath it.

Mary, Kyle and Crazy Fred all coughed as the sand flew into their faces

"What the hell was that Swamp Monkey!" shouted Mary

"I saw that going differently in my mind," coughed Kyle

The sand settled and Kyle and Mary looked into the crater he created, sitting at the bottom was a large wooden chest with a lock on it.

"Huh," said Kyle

"One sec I got the key around here somewhere," said Crazy Fred

"I'm assuming this is your chest Fred?" said Kyle

"Uhhhhh, yeah pretty much," said Crazy Fred

"So why did you bring us out here?" said Mary

"Felt like having an adventure!" chuckled Crazy Fred

Fred jumped down in the hole and put the key in the lock and turned

"But I wasn't lying when I said there was treasure in it," said Fred

He opened the chest inside were stacks of books, scrolls, and strangely realistic pictures. Kyle picked one up, he had seen these before, they were life paintings, they were created using magic and they were extremely expensive to make. The picture Kyle was holding contained four children, a woman, and a man, they were all dressed in expensive clothing. Kyle looked closely at the man; sure enough it was Fred, a Fred that looked 30 years younger and far wealthier.

Mary looked at Fred

"Aye, that's me," said Fred

"What happened to you?" said Mary

"I lost myself," said Fred

"What do you mean?" said Kyle

"Once upon a time I had a family and a successful career, but I lost both, one night at sea our ship was caught in a terrible storm, there was only one survivor if you can call it that. After that, I gave away what was left of my fortune, bought the Grand Duchess, and sailed off to parts unknown. I figured if I could get as far away from my old life as possible, then it wouldn't hurt anymore, but it hurt the same wherever I went. So I came back here, this place makes me feel closer to my family," said Fred, staring at the sunset

There was a long pause

"Tell us about them," said Mary softly

Fred smiled at her

"Well my son always wanted to be a knight, in fact onetime….."

-

"This isn't what I expected," said Tark

The gigantic ballroom was filled with colorful light spells exploding overhead, close to a hundred musicians playing music, and acrobats performing rather amazing jumps while levitating 20 feet above the floor.

"Would you care for a glass of wine, sir?" said a High Elf caterer holding out a tray

"Um, sure," said Tark grabbing a glass, a little overwhelmed

"Thisss iz going to be a lot more fun than I thought!" said Zaquarl

"Do you remember your back story?" muttered Bergen

"Lord Kasiim, member of Karato Tribe, hailing from the Wilderland Jungles, speaking of which you do realize I'm actually a member of the desert tribes and that I find these clothes to be highly offensive on both a cultural and fashionable level?" said Zaquarl

"As you have reminded us for what I believe is the 62nd time," said Bergen

"Really? I was aiming for 65," said Zaquarl

"Let's do some mingling," said Tark

Tark approached an elegantly dressed Dark Elf woman,

"Would you care to dance my lady?" said Tark

"Remember the mission Casanova," hissed Bergen nonchalantly as he passed by with Zaquarl

"I'd love to," she said

"I'm Tark by the way," said Tark

"Kaleena," said the elf

-

"So where is the High Elf leadership?" said Zaquarl

"They will be showing up in about ten minutes, it's tradition around here for the King and Queen to make their appearance 30 minutes after the party begins," said Bergen

"I alwaysss thought that High Elves were boring and full of themselves, I'm sssurprised that they would throw a party with thisss much excitement," said Zaquarl watching a light spell explode into the shape of a dragon

"The High Elves have an interesting culture, they are the very definition of calm and control on the outside, and a smoldering fire of passion on the inside, they mostly like to keep to themselves, its doubtful you will ever see this side of them outside the Summerset Isles." Said Bergen gesturing at the party

"You seem to be very educated, more so than your average Imperial Commander," commented Zaquarl

Bergen said nothing to this

"So how do we meet with them when they show up?" said Zaquarl

"It's highly offensive in their culture to just approach them, and probably impossible in any case with the security surrounding them, we need to be introduced." Said Bergen

"So how do we get an introduction?" said Zaquarl

"We need to become acquainted with someone close to someone who is close to someone who is close to the King and Queen, and then work our way up,"

"We're in for a long night aren't we?" said Zaquarl

"Probably," said Bergen

-

"So how were you invited to this party?" said Kaleena

"I'm an aide to the Khajiit Lord Kasiim," said Tark

"I've never heard of a Lord Kasiim before," said Kaleena

"He really likes to keep to himself, we had to practically drag him kicking and screaming to this party, he needed to get out," said Tark

Kaleena giggled

Tark made a dip, he was surprised he still remembered how to dance, he would never have asked her, but he had gotten one of his feelings, he was wondering what it meant, it was starting to make him uneasy.

"How about you? How were you invited?" said Tark

"I work for General Talaris; I'm the military liaison between the Summerset Defense Force and the King and Queen," said Kaleena

Tark smiled, he found his in

"General Talaris, he's the Oblivion Crisis hero, saved the entire Summerset Isles," said Tark

"He just saw what had to be done, while most of the Guard fled, he and his soldiers never wavered, they stayed and kicked the Daedra back to Hell. I'm proud to be working for him," said Kaleena

"Where were you during the Oblivion Crisis?" said Tark

"Right here, I was 18 when the gates opened up, me and my family was living in Stormlight, when the Daedra attacked the Royal Guard fled the city, they claimed it was a tactical retreat, but my entire family was butchered because of it. After that I joined up with General Talaris's army, I suppose I just wanted blood, but Talaris got me to see beyond my own hate, and see the problems of the people, after the Crisis I was offered a job in the newly created Summerset Defense Force, and here I am," said Kaleena

She was being surprisingly forthright thought Tark.

"What does your job entail exactly?" said Tark

"I keep the King and Queen informed on all military matters, I guess you can say I'm the voice of the S.D.F.," said Kaleena

"Captain Hlaalu!"

Kaleena turned around

"The King and Queen desire your presence," said a stiff Altmer

"Fine," said Kaleena

She turned to leave, then paused and looked back at Tark

"Would you like to join me?" she said

-

"Lord Jaffar! You simply must meet this Cat!" said a very fat High Elf

"Lord Kasiim! Get over here you rascal!" said the Elf

Zaquarl was wincing on the inside, he had been through jackass after jackass on his way to the King and Queen, and he was starting to crack a little.

"Lord Jaffar! I've heard some interesting ssstories about you, you bloated old fart!" said Zaquarl

"See what I mean? This Khajiit is a riot!" said the fat elf roaring with laughter

Zaquarl longed to hit him over the head with something heavy.

"Yes indeed Count Bolox!" said Lord Jaffar chuckling

"So I hear you're the King's personal financial adviser," said Zaquarl

"Yes Indeed! I helped him find the funds for the massive renovations to the Palace," said Jaffar

"Where did you ever find the money!" said Zaquarl

"Taxes my man!" said Jaffar

"I would think that money would go to help rebuilding the Summerset Isles, It was hit just as hard as the rest of Tamriel," said Zaquarl

"Oh that's all been taking care of!" said Jaffar with a wave of his hand

"That's not what the citizens said when I talked to them, they said that the Isles are in ruin all over the place," said Zaquarl, barely disguising a hiss

Bergen nudged him in the ribs

"Those people were mistaken, things are better than ever around here, of course what can you expect from that uneducated rabble," said Jaffar contemptuously

"I'd hate for you to get the wrong impression of our nation, in fact I'm heading over to the King right now, I'd love to introduce you," said Jaffar

"That would be fantastic!" said Zaquarl

-

Kyle, Mary, and Fred were walking along the docks; they had gotten back from the island and were staring at the reflection of the moon over the water.

"Thanks for the adventure," said Fred

"Anytime," said Kyle

"You know you two make a great couple," said Fred

Kyle and Mary jumped away from each other as if they had been electrocuted

"Wow, um no..."

"We're not…,"

"No way!"

"I mean, Swamp Monkey…"

"Not in a million years,"

"Oh I see you didn't know it yet, I apologize," said Fred

"Know what! There is nothing going on!" said Kyle and Mary as one, then realized they said it as one and quickly looked away from each other.

"You're fire," said Fred to Mary

"And you're water," said Fred to Kyle

"You balance each other out,"

"You really are crazy," said Kyle

-

"Kaleena!" said a regal voice

"I'm glad to see you made it," said the voice

"I wouldn't miss it your majesty," said Kaleena

The King was a very tall High Elf; he was dressed in brilliant red and gold robes and had a long brown beard trailing down to his ankles. The Queen was equally as tall and well dressed; she had gold hair and looked to be a little young for her position.

"And who's this?" said the King

"My name is Tark your majesty," said Tark, bowing slightly

"Kaleena I've called you here to ask what you think of the ball," said the King

"The ball is excellent your majesty," said Kaleena

"I'm also wondering why General Talaris isn't in attendance, we went to a lot of effort for this party," said the King

"He's a very busy man," said Kaleena

"Indeed! He's going to work himself into an early grave if he doesn't relax a little!" said the King

Kaleena just smiled respectfully

"This party is simply marvelous your majesty!"

The King turned in the direction of the voice

"Lord Jaffar! I was hoping to see you!" said the King

Tark grinned, Bergen and Zaquarl were tailing Jaffar, Bergen gave Tark the slightest of winks, Tark looked over at Kaleena, she was not smiling.

"I truly despise that man," she said quietly to Tark, indicating Jaffar

"Lets go get a drink, I'd rather avoid a confrontation," said Kaleena

Bergen was here now, he could handle the king.

"Sure," said Tark, they turned to leave

"Kaleena!" said Jaffar

"Are you enjoying the party? The King has certainly out done himself," said Jaffar

"It's fantastic, and you will address me as Captain Hlaalu," said Kaleena through gritted teeth

"You always had a short temper, you should work on that, would you care to dance?" said Jaffar

"No," said Kaleena and turned to leave with Tark

"I wonder what put her in such a dreadful mood," said Jaffar

Jaffar turned around and addressed the King.

"Your majesty, may I introduce Lord Kasiim! This cat is a riot!" said Jaffar

Zaquarl looked over at Bergen who shook his head slightly, which meant not yet, Zaquarl was wondering how long he was going to have to put up with this.

"Lord Kasiim of Karato Tribe, at your service your majesty," said Zaquarl

"Karato Tribe from the Wilderland Jungles?" said the King

"Yesss your majesty," said Zaquarl

"Amazing!" shouted Jaffar, pointing at a large fiery bird forming up above

"These light spells are simply superb!" said Jaffar

The Bird grew until it had a 20-foot wingspan, and then flew up into the air an inferno of fire, then dived towards the King and the people around him. Jaffar was clapping his hands and whistling.

Bergen stepped forward and erected a large force shield with his hands, the Bird crashed against it scorching the area outside the shield with fire, when the blaze stopped Bergen dropped the shield and looked around trying to find the spellcaster. Everyone around him was paralyzed with shock, the King and Queen had just nearly been assassinated!

-

Jas was trying very hard to get drunk, and was succeeding spectacularly; he was on his 10th mug of beer and had every intention of ordering an 11th. He was trying to drown out the memories of six years earlier; it wasn't really working too well.

"More Beer!" shouted Jas throwing down his empty mug

"What have you done to deserve this punishment?" said the bartender

"It's what I didn't do," said Jas, downing the beer the bartender just passed to him


	9. Chapter 9: Divided

"Assassination!"

"That's right! They tried to do it right in the middle of the party!"

That was the line of conversation running through the Royal Palace when Kyle returned early the following morning, he had spent the past 3 hours walking the streets of Firsthold alone, things had gotten uncomfortably awkward with Mary after Crazy Fred said they were a couple, _the very idea is insane! _Just then an overeager wood elf ran head first into him and knocked him to the floor.

"Well that hurt," said Kyle to the wood elf

Kyle picked himself up and offered the elf his hand; the elf took it and pulled himself up.

"I'm terribly sorry sir!" said the elf

"Just watch where you're going next time," said Kyle

The truth was that the elf should never have caught him unaware; he needed to get his head out of the clouds.

"What's all this about an assassination?" said Kyle

"The King, Queen, and several other royals were nearly assassinated during the ball!" said the elf

"How?" said Kyle

The elf went on to tell him about the giant flaming bird disguised as a light spell, and how a mysterious redguard saved everyone by acting quickly and creating a force shield. _Bergen_ thought Kyle. He needed to make a point to learn more about the man.

"Does anyone have any idea who created The Bird?" said Kyle

"Yeah, about 1000, the King has by far more enemies than friends right now," said the elf

"Why is that?" said Kyle

"You've seen Firsthold right? The height of civilization, do you have any idea what its cost to keep it like that?" said the elf

"The King has raised the taxes to the point where we can barely eat to rebuild Firsthold bigger and better after the Oblivion Crisis. Only Firsthold is the only part of the Summerset Isles that has been rebuilt, every other place is still in ruin. And the King is using the Royal Guard as his own personal police force, keeping order through out Firsthold by brutally putting down anyone who disagrees with him, I'd like to find the damn redguard who saved him and ask him what the hell he was thinking," said the elf

The elf, realizing what he had said, looked around quickly, then seeing nothing he sighed.

"Normally I wouldn't be talking this freely, but the Palace is in such chaos right now the Guard has bigger things to worry about than me, I have to go, nice running into you," said the elf

_Looks like Tark had the more interesting day after all_, thought Kyle

-

Bergen and Zaquarl were in a private meeting with the King

"We greatly appreciate your assistance Commander Bergen, but you need not worry, we would have been perfectly fine, the Queen and I have powerful amulets that protect us from any and all magical attacks, however you did save much of my staff and my bodyguards, I thank you for that," said the King

"It was my duty your majesty, do you have any idea who was behind this?" said Bergen

"I have several," said the King

"But it could have been anyone at this point. I've ordered General Talaris to bring in 3 divisions of troops to support the 5 divisions of Royal Guard already in the city. This demands an immediate show of force, the inhabitants of the city are already seeing this as a sign of weakness, they are already slandering my name in the streets!" said the King

Zaquarl thought this was a bit excessive but didn't say anything

"The Empire is creating an army to strike back at Radek, we need you to be a part of it," said Bergen

"I'd be happy to send troops to support the Empire, after all we are still a part of it, but the situation here must be stabilized first," said the King

Bergen knew what he was getting at, if he wanted the King to send soldiers to join the growing army in Cyrodil, then Bergen had to take care of the King's secret enemy.

Bergen nodded in understanding "Very well, then it would be best if you did not reveal either mine or Lieutenant Zaquarl's identities," said Bergen

"Understood, you and Lord Kasiim are dismissed," said the King

"I don't like thisss," said Zaquarl after they were in the hallway

"We are helping a tyrant ssstay in power," said Zaquarl

"Welcome to my life, you do what you have to for the greater good," said Bergen

-

The man came crashing down on a table breaking it in half

"Who's next? Who will brave the ring with the beautiful and deadly Red Mary!" shouted the announcer

Mary had found her way into an underground kickboxing arena, and was currently working off her frustration the only way she knew how, beating people up. _Fred really was crazy!_ There was absolutely nothing going on between her and Kyle, _he is fun and everything and I guess he looks ok, but there is nothing there!_

She screamed and chopped an Imperial in the throat, and then while he was clutching his throat she knocked him out with a back kick, _honestly it was ludicrous she felt nothing for him._

"WHO'S NEXT!" she roared at a frightened crowd

An orc almost as large as Darksword climbed into the ring, he cracked his neck, roared, and beat his chest. Mary dashed forward and landed a powerful kick in the orc's family jewels.

"RAAAAAAH!" he screeched in agony

Mary then grabbed the orc's head and brought it crashing down on her knee knocking him out. The orc crumpled to the ground and the crowd roared with approval.

"Will anyone else brave a fight with the undefeated Red Mary?" shouted the announcer

There was a long pause during which nobody stepped forward.

"What? No takers? Very well, Mary will you please clear the ring for the next fight?" said the announcer with a trace of fear.

"RAAHHH!" screamed Mary in frustration, stomping her foot on the floor

Ten minutes later the announcer was counting out a large bag of coins.

"That was the most impressive fight I've ever seen! Thirteen in a row! Simply amazing, you've earned this," said the announcer handing Mary the bag of coins

Mary waved them off "Keep it," she said

The announcer looked at her like she was crazy, but didn't object.

"So where did all that anger come from in the ring? Guy problems?" said the announcer

"I'm going to kill the next person who says that," said Mary dangerously

The announcer raised his hands and backed away

-

Tark was dreaming sweet dreams when suddenly a pillow came crashing down on his head.

"Kaleena!" he shouted with a start

"Kaleena? Now there's a story I have to hear," said Kyle standing over Tark's bed with a pillow in his hands.

"Sure, just as soon as you tell me about you and Mary," groaned Tark groggily

"Why does everyone think there is something going on between us!" shouted Kyle

There was a large snore, Kyle looked over and saw Jas Rendar sleeping in a bed across the room.

"Don't worry, he's so hung over it would take a fire bomb to wake him up," said Tark

"And to answer your question, that would be because you've spent more time with her in the past month than any girl in the past year, ever since what's her name," said Tark

"Oh gods don't remind me," said Kyle

Tark howled with laughter

"You mean abou---?" he was cut off as Kyle hit him with the pillow again.

"You do realize we have an alarm clock!" said Tark throwing his pillow at Kyle

"Yeah, come on lets go get some breakfast you can tell me about the assassination attempt, and more importantly about Kaleena," said Kyle

"Sleep now, food later," said Tark falling back down on the bed

Kyle hit him with the pillow again

"That's it!" said Tark, and tackled Kyle

-

"He's requested 3 divisions just like you predicted," said Kaleena

General Talaris smiled a grim smile, he was of average height for a High Elf, wore his hair in a short ponytail, and was dressed in black ebony armor.

"Soon this madness will be over, you've done well Captain, report back to the Royal Palace," said Talaris

Talaris turned around and looked at the ring on his hand it was jet black with a gold fiery bird in the middle, yes soon this madness will be over, he thought

-

"What is this crap?" said Mary staring at her mug

"It's called coffee," said Zaquarl sipping his mug

"Are you going to finish your toast?" said Zaquarl

"Yes!" snapped Mary

Mary and Zaquarl were in the cafeteria of the Royal Palace eating breakfast

"Are you even listening to me!" said Mary

"He actually thought me and Kyle were a couple, a couple!" shouted Mary

"You're not?" said Zaquarl calmly, taking a bite of his eggs

"NO!" shrieked Mary

"I need sssome more bacon," said Zaquarl sniffing the air

"I'm going to shove the bacon up your nose if you don't start paying attention or at the very least nod your head once in a while!" said Mary

"I'm listening, I'm just more concerned about what Bergen plansss to do," said Zaquarl

"Oh yeah, keeping King Jackass in charge around here, I'm not sure I agree with that either,"

"If I didn't know better I might sssuggest finding the people who tried to off the King and give them a helping hand," said Zaquarl

"Good thing we know better," said Mary with a wry smile

"Oh yesss," said Zaquarl grinning

"Look its Kyle and Tark!" said Zaquarl pointing

Kyle and Tark had just entered the Cafeteria

"Hide!" said Mary frantically

Zaquarl got up and started whistling and waving to them.

"I hate you," growled Mary

"You love me," said Zaquarl laughing

-

"Pretend we didn't see him," said Kyle to Tark

"Hey Zaquarl! Can we join you for breakfast!" shouted Tark

"Sure!" shouted Zaquarl

"Payback is a bitch," whispered Tark to Kyle

"Laugh it up chuckles, I haven't forgotten about Kaleena," said Kyle

Tark groaned and went to Zaquarl and Mary's table with Kyle.

"Hey Mary, heard you and Kyle had an interesting day yesterday," said Tark sitting down helping himself to a newly arrived plate of bacon

Mary glared at him

"Hey calm down fire," said Tark

Mary hit him

"The old man was crazy!" shouted Mary

"Why don't you tell us about Kaleena," said Kyle

"I would but we have much more important matters to discuss, such as what we're going to do about the King," said Tark rubbing his bruised arm

"I for one don't plan on following Bergen's orders on this one, I aim to misbehave," said Tark

"Well Bergen should have seen it coming when he recruited us, and when you think about it Bergen sees everything coming, so in reality he wants us to disobey his orders," said Kyle

"A very logical argument," said Zaquarl

"So what are we going to do?" said Mary

-

Bergen poured the cold water over Jas's head, he woke with a start, Bergen handed him a potion.

"Drink this it will cure your hangover and replenish your energy," said Bergen

Jas took it, and downed it in one gulp.

"What is it Bergen?" said Jas

"You should probably pick better times to go get drunk," said Bergen calmly

"_You're_ going to lecture _me_ about responsibility? You have _no_ right," snarled Jas

He and Bergen stared at each other for several seconds

"We might feel better if we got this out in the open once and for all," said Bergen

Jas punched Bergen in the jaw, hard, knocking him to the floor.

"Feel better?" said Jas

"I suppose I walked into that one," said Bergen rubbing his jaw

Jas turned to get dressed and cleaned up

"What's the plan Commander?" said Jas when he was dressed and shaved

-

"We need to meet with Captain Hlaalu, she's the military liaison between the Summerset Defense Force and the Royal Palace, I think she wants a change in government as much as we do," said Tark

"How do you know?" said Kyle

"We met briefly at the party, she has very strong convictions about helping the people, and she believes that the current administration will lead the Isles to ruin, and I think she knew about The Bird because she left right before it attacked," said Tark

"You gained all this from a brief meeting," said Kyle smiling

"Correct," said Tark rather formally

"What's her first name?" said Kyle

"For the life of me I can not remember," said Tark

"Right," said Kyle trying not to laugh

"Wait! I think I remember her! She was that pretty Dark Elf you were with at the party, right?" said Zaquarl

Kyle and Mary broke out laughing

"Can we focus please!" said Tark

"Of course, your right, when do we meet with her?" said Kyle

"At noon, at the Palace Fountains, which is in one hour," said Tark

"Then we better get moving," said Mary

-

"Does the Guard have any leads yet?" said the King

"Yes your majesty, the only problem is they have too many," said Jaffar

"I do seem to collect enemies don't I Jaffar?" said the King

"Greatness inspires jealousy your majesty," said Jaffar

"How true, how true," said the King

"They don't understand what I'm trying to do, I'm trying to make Firsthold into a shining beacon of light for the whole world, that takes sacrifice!" said the King

"How right you are your majesty," said Jaffar

"Keep me updated on the Guard's investigation," said the King

"Of course, your majesty," said Jaffar

-

Jas and Bergen had just got through asking the Royal Guard about their leads, and had come up with roughly 332 lead suspects.

"Surprisingly enough they have narrowed it down quite a bit," said Jas who had his façade of calm up again

"Well we can pretty much discount anyone who is on this list, anyone with the intelligence and resources to pull this off would have known the King was protected with a powerful shield, and therefore has a far greater plan in the works. That person would also certainly have the resources to keep his or her name off this list," said Bergen

"So we are looking for someone who should be on this list but isn't," said Jas

"Correct," said Bergen

"Any ideas where to start?" said Jas

"A few," said Bergen

-

Kyle, Tark, Mary, and Zaquarl were sitting in front of one of the hundreds of ornate fountains in the Palace Fountains.

"Tark!"

Tark looked and saw Kaleena approaching them

"Kaleena, I'm glad you could make it," said Tark

"Why did you want to meet at the Palace Fountains?" said Kaleena

"Less chance of being overheard, we have a matter of mutual interest to discuss," said Tark

"I've never heard it put that way," said Kaleena laughing

Tark turned red "That's not exactly what I meant," he said

He told her that he and his friends were Imperial Special Forces, and that they wanted to help her and Talaris overthrow the King, Kaleena raised an eyebrow.

"You should probably take this seriously, because the man on your trail is smart, ruthless, and will court martial us if he finds out we are helping you," said Kyle

"Why are you helping me?" said Kaleena

"What can I say we're idealists," said Mary

"Your going to help us assassinate a man?" said Kaleena

"It's not the worse thing we've done, and in any case allowing him to ssstay on the throne would be a far greater crime," said Zaquarl

"Then there is someone you should meet," said Kaleena

-

"General Talaris, the Oblivion War hero?" said Bergen

"I never thought Vexes would have deserted with four Legions, but look how that turned out," said Jas

Bergen didn't say anything to that

"Talaris is an idealist, he bleeds for the people and the King's taxes a practically forcing them into starvation, it stands to reason that he would want to correct that situation, and take a looks at this," Jas passed a book to Bergen

"Notice anything familiar about that?" said Jas

On the page was a fiery bird with a black background.

"That's the Talaris family crest," said Jas

"We should get a spy close to Talaris," said Bergen

"We have to do this ourselves, we can't ask the others. This is a job for monsters, not soldiers," said Jas

"Your right," said Bergen

"Lets get started," said Jas, and turned to leave the Palace Archives

"I'm sorry Jas," said Bergen "I know it doesn't mean anything, but I am sorry,"

Jas turned to look Bergen straight in the eyes

"I was there at the end, I watched that little girl die in my arms, and I've had nightmares about it every single night since, so, you're right, it doesn't mean anything, lets focus on the task at hand," said Jas

He then turned and left the Archives, after a few seconds Bergen followed.

-

General Talaris was staring out over the balcony of his quarters down at the city, he did not particularly like the quarters that the King had assigned him, they were too extravagant for his taste.

"General Talaris, Captain Hlaalu is here with four escorts, two humans, a Khajiit, and a Dark Elf," said his aide

"Send them in," said Talaris

"Captain, what's the purpose of your visit?" said Talaris

"The changing of the guard," said Kaleena

Talaris nodded for his aide to leave

"Why are they here?" said Talaris

"They're Imperial Special Forces, they want to help us," said Kaleena

"And why would you want to do that, the last time I checked the Empire was on its deathbed, you should have bigger things to worry about than us," said Talaris

"We came here because we need your help against Radek," said Kyle

"And why should we help you? What has the Empire done for us? Look around you, we're bleeding, and the Empire just sits back and watches, either they can't help us or they won't, in either case they are useless to us," said Talaris

"We're here aren't we?" said Kyle

"You think I don't know that your acting against the orders of your commanding officer? You will find that there is little that escapes my attention son," said Talaris

"That's what I don't get, you have a lot of resources" said Kyle

"You have an entire army under your command why not just march into the capital and take control? Why resort to assassination?" said Kyle

"Because that move would cost the lives of thousands of Fristhold citizens, and because the King is not as stupid as everyone thinks, he monitors troop movements closely. If I moved troops into position to attack the city he would call in every Royal Guard unit in the Isles and fortify it, he would let the people die of starvation before he ever surrendered. The only way to prevent that is to take him out in one move," said Talaris

"So once he's dead what's to stop the other royals from starting a civil war? Because I guarantee once he's gone they're not going to just let you keep the throne, they are going to want the big seat for themselves," said Kyle

"In 24 hours there won't be any royals left, and there won't be a throne either," said Talaris

"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" said Kyle

"You'll find out, I assure you," said Talaris

"In the mean time I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave, Captain if you'll take their weapons please," said Talaris

Mary's hand inched toward her double-ended sword.

"Don't think about it soldier, you might think you're good, but I guarantee you I'm better," said Talaris

Mary let Kaleena take her sword, Kaleena then gathered up the rest of their weapons.

"Adamantium tipped claws? Impressive," said Kaleena to Zaquarl

"Thanksss you wouldn't believe how painful it was to get it done," said Zaquarl

"Sergeant we're going to need four shackles," she said to the guard stationed at the door

"I wouldn't want you three to feel left out," she said to the others

"Brilliant plan here pointy ears," said Mary to Tark

"And by the way I don't approve of your girlfriend," said Kyle

"Neither do I," said Tark

"Its just business, don't take it personally, we're just fighting on different sides," said Kaleena

"No we're not, we came here to help you," said Tark

"Yes we are, you just don't know it yet," said Kaleena sadly

"You'll be free to go once this business is taken care of, until then you're guests in my quarters, I'm afraid I have to go but you need not worry I'm leaving you in capable hands there will be eight guards posted inside and outside the doors to these quarters, make yourselves at home," said Talaris

He then turned to leave with Kaleena

-

"What's he planning?" said Jas

"He can't possibly be thinking of taking on 5 divisions of Royal Guard with 3 divisions of S.D.F., he's good, but he's not that good," said Jas

"He has something up his sleeve," said Bergen

"Do we tell the King?" said Jas

"No, if we do that the King will order the Guard to attack the S.D.F., and then we will have a civil war on our hands, we have to handle this discreetly," said Bergen

Bergen and Jas were currently going through all the military dispatches sent out in the past 24 hours

"This is interesting, he's ordered a rather large group of soldiers to patrol the Black Wizard, that's the roughest part of the city, not even the Royal Guard has any significant presence there. Says here they are patrolling the area because they have reason to believe the assassin is holed up there, but we know that's a bunch of bullshit," said Jas passing Bergen the dispatch

"Lets check it out," said Bergen

-

The Black Wizard was the oldest part of Firsthold; in fact, it was where the High Elves first landed when they migrated from Aldmeris to Tamriel. It was a place of secrets, murder, betrayal, corruption, and a general lack of respect for the law; it told a lot about the city's origins. The inhabitants of the Black Wizard varied from all the nine "official" races of Tamriel, to Daedra left behind after Mehrunes Dagon's failed invasion of Tamriel, to everything in between.

"Now this is what city life is suppose to be like!" said Jas

"There's only one reason why Talaris would come here, he wants to keep something secret," said Bergen

"This would be the place to do it," said Jas

Bergen and Jas were making there way through the dark alleys to a warehouse where 30 S.D.F. Commandos were stationed, S.D.F. Commandos were the equivalent of Imperial Special Forces, and for 30 of them to be guarding a warehouse told them that it was not an ordinary warehouse. Talaris had a lot to learn about subtlety, thought Bergen.

Jas and Bergen approached the warehouse

"We should enter from the top," said Bergen

He and Jas climbed the staircase on the side of the building, knocked out the guard guarding the entrance to the top floors, and entered the building. They were looking out over a guardrail, and below that was General Talaris with six Commandos to his left and right, it looked like they were waiting for something, they didn't have to wait for long. The doors opposite of Talaris opened up and a goblin officer entered the building flanked by six goblins.

-

The Goblin officer stopped in front of Talaris and saluted, the goblins with him did the same. Talaris returned the salute as did his commandos.

"Lord Radek apologizes that he could not be here in person, but he had a matter of great importance to attend to," said the goblin officer

"It's understandable," said Talaris

"Your troops understand that they are to leave civilians completely alone and only engage the Royal Guard? I don't want a repeat of what happened at the Imperial City," said Talaris

"Burnock was a mistake and we take full responsibility for his actions, when the Legion killed him it was a mercy compared to what Lord Radek would have done to him," said the goblin officer

Talaris nodded "Good, the attack begins in 1 hour, this is the spell you need to deactivate the anti-teleportation field the King set up after the assassination attempt," said Talaris handing the goblin a sheet of paper

"Godspeed comrades," said the goblin saluting Talaris again, he then turned and left with his escort

-

Bergen and Jas sat there dumbstruck, forget about Talaris collaborating with Radek, there was no way in hell they were going to get to the King before the attack began.

"We are so totally scrued," said Jas


	10. Chapter 10: Coalition

Kyle, Tark, Mary, and Zaquarl were sitting in a corner of General Talaris's quarters, shackled up and having a staring contest with the four guards in the room with them.

"So what's the plan?" whispered Mary

"Zaquarl can you break your shackles?" said Kyle

Zaquarl stared at him

"I'll take that as a no, well these shackles have a magic draining enchantment on them so that's not an option," said Kyle

"I can alwaysss pick the locksss on one of your shacklesss," said Zaquarl

Kyle stared at him "Well why the hell didn't you just say so!" he hissed

Zaquarl shrugged, "You were on a roll, I didn't want to interrupt it," he said

"Kiss my ass, and where did you learn to pick locks?" said Kyle

"I ssspent 6 monthsss in the Thievesss Guild before joining the Arena," said Zaquarl

"Me and Kyle spent 2 years in the Guild, and even we can't pick a lock with nothing but our hands and no magicka," said Tark skeptically

Zaquarl poked out the claw on his left pinky, it was about 3½ inches long and was sharp and narrow with a hooked end.

"You don't have the right toolsss, I can't pick mine from thisss angle but I can get you three," said Zaquarl

"I love this cat," said Kyle

"We only have time to unlock one person before the guards figure out what's going on, so we have to decide which one of us gets the honor of clobbering them," said Kyle

"Me" "Me" "Me"

"I said it first so it looks you two will have to sit this one out, move yourselves in front of Zaquarl while he does his thing," said Kyle

Zaquarl unlocked his shackles. Kyle was up and charging at the guards like a bolt of lightning before they even knew what had happened. He grabbed the arm of the first guard before he could draw his sword and twisted it behind him, breaking it, then he pulled out the guard's sword and knocked him out with the handle. The other three guards pulled out their swords and attacked him, Kyle blocked a blow aimed at his guts, then kicked the guard hard in the stomach knocking him to the floor. Kyle grabbed the next guard's hand as he tried to bring his sword down, then while the guard was struggling he brought his handle crashing down on the guards forehead knocking him out. The next guard dropped his sword and raised his hands.

"Good choice," said Kyle, he then punched out the guard and knocked out the guard struggling to get up.

He searched the guards.

"Got the keys!" said Kyle

"So what now?" said Mary, strapping her double-ended sword onto her back.

"We saw Talaris enchant those doors before he left, they can only be opened from the outside and we don't have any magicka or fire bombs," said Mary

"I can alwaysss climb down to the floor below usss and go around and open the doorsss," said Zaquarl pointing at the balcony.

"And how the hell are you going to do that, we're 1500 feet in the air and the next floor is 50 feet below, I don't see any rope and grappling hooks around here do you?" said Tark

Zaquarl pulled of his boots revealing adamantium tipped toe-claws

"I'm a pretty good climber," said Zaquarl

"You're a freak aren't you?" said Kyle

"You just realized?" said Zaquarl laughing

-

Jas and Bergen had commandeered a pair of horses and were trying to get to the King before the attack started

"We're not going to make it. Gods, what the hell is Talaris thinking! The goblins are going to destroy everything in their path!" said Jas panting

"The goblins are a lot smarter and controlled than most people give them credit for, they wouldn't have been able to accomplish as much as they have as fast as they have if they weren't," said Bergen

"So you're not worried?" said Jas incredulously

"I'm worried believe me, if Talaris wins this battle then Radek will have the Summerset Isles behind him, and then this whole situation will become much more complicated," said Bergen

"Complicated? That's the word you're going to go with?" said Jas

"The Isles will be better off if he does win, but the Empire won't be," said Bergen

"Yaw!" shouted Jas, making his horse pick up the pace

-

General Talaris was in the Palace Courtyard, in front of 500 S.D.F. Commandos, he was looking at his chain watch for the last time, he flipped it closed and raised his sword to his troops.

"Tonight we take back what is ours!" he roared

He then charged into the Palace followed by his soldiers

-

Zaquarl was scaling the side of the Royal Palace, _good thing I am not afraid of heights_, he thought looking down 1500 feet. Zaquarl kicked his foot into the stone and continued lowering himself, _maybe I should get my fangs done too_ he thought letting his mind wander, _no, adamantium tastes horrible_. Zaquarl swung himself into the balcony below him

"Piece of cake," he said confidently, walking into the room.

"What the hell!" shouted a voice.

"Is this your idea of 'spicing things up?'" shrieked a voice

"It's a cat burglar you dimwit!" shouted another voice

Zaquarl looked and saw two humans staring at him in shock on a bed. Both of them were covered with blankets, thankfully.

"Who are you calling a dimwit!" shrieked the woman

She pushed the guy off the bed and onto the floor; he took the blanket with him. The woman screamed and covered herself up with a pillow.

Zaquarl left the room.

"Humans," he muttered

-

Jas's horse reared up as the Goblin and Royal Guard collided beneath it.

"Frak it! Ditch the damn horses!" shouted Jas

It was a lot safer than it looked. The Goblins were keeping true to their word and only attacking the Royal Guard, as long as Jas and Bergen did not provoke them they could walk right up to the palace.

"You two! Get inside the buildings!" shouted an S.D.F. soldier

"Sorry, we got an appointment at the Palace!" said Jas

"I'm not going to ask you again!" said the soldier pulling out his sword

Jas looked at Bergen.

"It was fun while it lasted," he said

Jas and Bergen pulled out their swords and charged into the fray.

-

"Talaris! Talaris is the traitor?" said the King

"It would appear so your majesty, in which case he will be coming for you, the guard are trying to hold the S.D.F. Commandos back, but the Commandos are better trained and they had the element of surprise, and there is reports from the bottom of the palace that several hundred goblins have entered the building as well," said Jaffar

"Goblins? What the hell is Talaris thinking?" said the King

"The goblins helped Talaris close Oblivion Gates during the war, he has obviously developed a good relationship with them," said Jaffar

"That was back when they did as they were told," said the King

"We need to get you out of here your majesty," said Jaffar

Jaffar always got cold and logical when his life was threatened; it was a survival mechanism.

"Where's the Queen?" said the King

"She was taken prisoner with several other royals when Talaris stormed the building," said Jaffar

"Well we can always find another. Jaffar, I want you to take a team of six guards and secure the emergency teleporter," said the King

"Just six your majesty?" said Jaffar apprehensively

"Get moving Jaffar," said the King

"Of course your majesty," said Jaffar

-

Mary and Kyle were sitting 10 feet away from each other and rubbing their hands, enjoying the awkward silence.

"Enough!" shouted Tark, jumping off from the wall he was leaning on

"I mean come on, if you two want to deny whatever the hell it is that's happening between you two that's your business, but this damn silence is driving me out of my mind!"

"Nothing is happening!" shouted Mary and Kyle

"Then talk! Move you mouth! Say something!" shouted Tark

"We both know what this is about Tark, and its not about me and Mary, it's not our fault your girlfriend betrayed you," said Kyle

"She was never my girlfriend! And if she was I wouldn't be denying it," countered Tark

"What!?" shouted Mary

"The next person to say that we are a couple is going to get the beating of a lifetime!" screamed Mary

"What is it with you two? Why would it be so bad if you had a relationship in your lives?" said Tark

Mary and Kyle opened their mouths then closed them, and decided to just glare at Tark instead.

There were several drops at door and they split open, Zaquarl strode into the room, behind him were several unconscious guards.

"Thank the Gods!" said Kyle

"I need to kill something," said Mary

"Well that shouldn't be a problem, there iz a pretty big battle raging throughout the Palace, and get thisss, there are over a 300 goblinsss in here," said Zaquarl putting his boots back on

"Goblins?" said Tark

"Yeah, turnsss out Talaris made an alliance with Radek, which meansss we need to get out of here," said Zaquarl

"This night sucks," said Kyle

-

Talaris was fighting two guards; he knocked one out with the flat side of his sword and drained the energy from the other with a touch of his hand. A third guard came charging at him with his sword, Talaris sideswiped it and stabbed the guard in the guts, he was trying to avoid casualties where he could but it was proving difficult.

"This is taking to long, Captain Hlaalu take a team of 20 ahead and secure the emergency teleporter, I'll join you when I can," said Talaris

"Yes sir!" said Kaleena and moved off with a troop of 20 soldiers

The battle was going in their favor, but that meant nothing if the King escaped. If the King escaped, he would embroil the Summerset Isles in a civil war that would last years and cost the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions. Of course, a much larger Civil War was approaching, one that would definitely cost millions of lives and change the face of Tamriel forever, all revolutions are paid for with blood.

-

Jas and Bergen had fought their way through, S.D.F., goblins, and Royal guard to get to the steps of the palace, to Jas it all served to reinforce one point; he didn't know what the hell he was fighting for and he hadn't in a long time. Jas and Bergen ran up the steps to the Palace entrance.

"Halt!" Shouted a soldier

"Nobody gets in!" said the soldier

Bergen blasted him with a bolt of lightning

"That was excessive don't you think?" said Jas

"He'll live, most likely," said Bergen

Jas and Bergen entered the Palace, and got on the lift to the upper floors.

"We need to make sure that the King escapes, if he does Talaris will be to busy fighting a civil war to send troops to help Radek," said Bergen

"Given the Isles current condition I doubt that they would ever recover from a civil war, at least not for several hundred years," said Jas

"Most likely, but we don't really have any other options," said Bergen

-

Jaffar was moving as fast as he could to the teleporter, he had no intention of waiting for his Royal Pain in the Ass to arrive, he was going to get the hell out of here as soon as he got there, he would leave the Guard behind of course, they would slow down any pursuers.

"Almost there!" shouted Jaffar, more to himself than anyone else

-

"Isn't that Lord Jaffar?" said Tark

"Yesss, he has highly tuned survival instinctsss we should follow him," said Zaquarl

"Lead the way," said Kyle

-

The lift came to a sudden and abrupt stop.

"Looks like we're going to have to use the stairs," said Bergen

"I needed a good work out anyway," said Jas

Bergen and Jas stepped out of the lift and ran to the stairs. All around them were Royal Guards clashing with S.D.F. and goblin soldiers. Once upon a time, the Summerset Royal Guard were mighty warriors, but the King had reduced them to little more than thugs, they didn't stand much chance against real soldiers.

Bergen kicked open the door to the stairwell and started climbing up.

-

Jaffar arrived at the teleporter, and muttered the spell that would power it up.

"Hello Jaffar," said a voice behind him

Jaffar turned around and saw Lord Kasiim with two humans and a Dark Elf.

"Stand back Lord Kasiim, I have no desire to hurt you, you will have to find another way out of here, this teleporter is for the King," said Jaffar

"My name iz Zaquarl you pompous jackasss!" said Zaquarl

Zaquarl, Mary, Kyle, and Tark tackled the Royal Guards around Jaffar, and knocked them all out in less than 8 seconds.

"Kasiim! What is the meaning of this!" shouted Jaffar

"Shut up!" shouted Zaquarl and punched out Jaffar

"Godsss, that felt good," said Zaquarl with a shudder

"Alright let's get out of here," said Mary moving to the teleporter

"We can't do that," said Kyle

"Why not? This isn't our fight, Talaris made that very clear," said Mary

"The King is going to use this teleporter to escape, if he does that the Summerset Isles will be embroiled in a civil war that they will never recover from," said Kyle

He looked around at the faces around him; none of them could be described as happy.

"What the hell," said Mary and took out her sword and destroyed the crystal powering the teleporter

"What have you done!" screamed Jaffar who had regained consciousness

Tark bent down and punched him out again.

"That did feel good," he said

"There's another way out of here, we need to get to the airships in the Palace Docking Bay up above," said Kyle

"Lets get out of here," said Tark

-

Jas and Bergen were halfway to the top of the palace.

"Why did the High Elves have to make this thing so damn tall!" panted Jas

"They're over compensating for something," said Bergen

That got a chuckle out of Jas.

"You know Bergen, maybe in another life we could have been friends," said Jas

"You never know," said Bergen

-

The King arrived at the teleporter with his armed escort, and found the power crystal destroyed and Jaffar unconscious, the King zapped him awake with a mild shot of magical electricity.

"YAW!" yelped Jaffar

"What happened here Jaffar?" said the King

"Lord Kasiim and his escorts destroyed the teleporter your majesty!" said Jaffar

"I knew I never should have trusted the Legion!" shouted the King

"What?" said Jaffar perplexed

The King knocked him out again

"Damn, that felt good," he said

"We need to get moving to the airships in the Palace Docking Bay, that's are only way out now," said the King to his guard

-

Kyle, Zaquarl, Mary, and Tark were dashing up the stairs to the Docking Bay.

"Why the hell did they make this building so tall!" panted Mary

"Does anyone even know how to fly an airship?" said Tark

"I think I can manage it," said Kyle

"Think!?" shouted Tark

"Alright, I can definitely manage it!" said Kyle

-

Kaleena and her soldiers arrived at the teleporter and found it destroyed and Jaffar unconscious, Kaleena slapped him awake

"Ouch!" said Jaffar

"What happened here Jaffar?" said Kaleena

Jaffar told her about how Lord Kasiim and his companions had destroyed the teleporter and knocked him out, twice. Then how the King zapped him with lightning then punched him out again.

Kaleena smiled, _I guess I owe Tark one after all, how the hell did they escape?_ Thought Kaleena.

"Thanks Jaffar," said Kaleena, then punched him back out

"That felt so good I think I might need to change my pants," said Kaleena

"You four grab Jaffar, the rest of you come with me, we need to inform the General about this,"

-

"I know what the King's next move is going to be, he's going to be heading for the airships, we got the lift working again though so it should allow us to catch up to him," said Talaris

"Lets Move!" ordered Talaris

-

Kyle, Tark, Mary, and Zaquarl burst into the Palace Docking Bay, and started running for the nearest airship

"Zaquarl, Mary, you two cut the ropes holding the ship in place," said Kyle

"Tark, wind up the ballistae, we might need it,"

"I'm going to heat up the engines," said Kyle

"You got it," said Tark

Tark, Mary, and Zaquarl moved off to get the ship ready

-

The King and the Royal Guard entered the docking bay and headed to the Royal Airship, Its crew had already gotten it ready, it looked like the King was going to live to see the sunrise, then he heard the gears of the lift moving and Talaris arrived with about 300 soldiers.

"You ten are with me, the rest of you engage Talaris!" shouted the King, he then ran for his airship

-

"I don't think so," said Talaris as he watched the King run

"Push through!" he roared, and took after the King

-

Jas and Bergen entered the Docking Bay and watched as hundreds of Royal Guards and S.D.F. Commandos fought each other.

"Lovely," said Jas

"Well how the hell are we going to get out of here now?" said Jas

"That's them!" shouted a group of Commandos pointing at Jas and Bergen

Jas and Bergen pulled out their swords as the Commandos charged, but then a projectile landed in the middle of the Commandos and exploded, sending bits of them flying everywhere.

Jas and Bergen looked up and saw an airship hovering above them, it lowered two rope ladders, they grabbed on and climbed up. When they got to the top Mary and Tark grabbed their hands and pulled them up.

"Well done," said Bergen

"Thanks Commander," said Tark

-

Talaris and 12 of his soldiers jumped on board the Royal Airship at the last moment and started engaging the Royal Guard.

"Captain Hlaalu, take the soldiers and take control of the helm, I'm going to find the King," said Talaris

"There is no need to look General, come up here and let us settle this," shouted the King from atop the airship

Talaris went to meet him

-

The King waited atop the ship with six of his personal guard, he would take care of this traitor.

"Only six guards your majesty? I must say I'm slightly offended," said Talaris

The King threw a blast of lightning at Talaris, which he dodged, and then the guards attacked. Talaris brought his foot down on knee of the closest one, crushing it, then brought his fist crashing down on the guard's head, breaking his neck. Talaris then drew his sword and decapitated a guard with a flourish of his blade. The remaining guards charged at him, Talaris's blade came alive with a golden fire, he then began spinning around and a tornado of fire was created around him, the guards surrounded him and waited for it to dissipate, then the Tornado exploded blasting the guards off the ship.

Talaris approached the King slowly and calmly

"I've waited a long time for this," said Talaris

"Why are you doing this?" said the King franticly

"Because you have forced my people into starvation! Because you have nearly bled the

Isles to death to build your damn city!" roared Talaris

The King charged at Talaris throwing fire balls, Talaris dodged around them, then swept the King's legs out from under him with a kick, the King fell to the ground. Talaris grabbed the King's collar and dragged him to the edge of the ship. The ship was now floating above the city in the middle Firsthold; you could see the sun rising in the East.

"Go be with your people!" roared Talaris and threw the King over the edge, he fell screaming to his death.

-

Kyle, Mary, Tark, Zaquarl, Jas, and Bergen watched the sunrise from their airship.

"You can't win them all," said Kyle

"We're going to lose many more, I doubt that the Summerset Isles will be the last province to join with Radek," said Bergen

"What do you mean?" asked Kyle

-

Talaris was addressing the City of Firsthold from atop the airship using a voice magnifier.

"A new age has begun! An age without Kings, Queens, or Emperors! An age free of Royalty!" shouted Talaris

"An age of equality and justice! The age of the Tamriel Coalition!"

"The Empire is inherently flawed and beyond saving, it must be allowed to die. The provinces must take their destiny into their own hands! We have created the Tamriel Coalition, an alliance of provinces and races, that will resist tyranny, injustice, and will replace the Empire!"


	11. Chapter 11: Jas's Crime

6 YEARS AGO - - - - - - - - - - - - DAGERFALL, HIGHROCK

Major Jas Rendar was sitting on a bench in the Royal Courtyard looking out over a manmade pond. He watched as a Bluescale Slaughterfish swam through the pond. It was a bright sunny day, the first in a long time.

"Jas!"

Something small and fast collided with Jas knocking him off the bench

It was a little girl with golden blonde hair, freckles, bright green eyes and dressed in light weight brown leather armor

"Maria, you're on time for once?" said Jas laughing

"Yup!" said the little girl

"Ready to begin?" asked Jas

"Bring it old man," said Maria

"Then take a stance young warrior," said Jas

Maria took the fighting stance Jas had taught her, and lashed out with a kick aimed at Jas's stomach; Jas caught her leg in mid air and flipped her onto the ground.

"Now what did you do wrong?" asked Jas

"I left my self vulnerable by reaching my leg out too far," said Maria

"That's right, now I'm going to show you what to do when that happens,"

Jas went on to teach her how to break a lock and was about to teach her a combo when a Legionnaire came up to them.

"Sir, the King wishes to speak with you," said the Legionnaire

"Very well sergeant," said Jas

"Maria, why don't you show Sergeant Decanis here some of your moves while I'm talking to your grandfather," said Jas

"Sure," said Maria

Jas patted the soldier on the shoulder and went to the King's briefing room. King Valkanas was over 80 years old and had only one heir, Maria, he had a son once but he died of pneumonia 3 years ago, he left behind a 7-year-old daughter. Maria's mother had died shortly after she was born. Maria was now the only heir to the throne of High Rock.

Jas knocked on the doors to the briefing room.

"Come in," said a voice

"You asked for me your majesty?" said Jas

"Jas, I have bad news, we have a traitor in the Palace," said King Valkanas, he was standing over a large table, all around him were shelves of books.

"I suspected as much, your cousin Zane has been getting disturbingly accurate Intel about the Palace," said Jas

"Yes Zane, well it gets worse, a lot worse," said Valkanas

"Zane has received all the Intel on Maria's security precautions, if he kills her he gets to become King when I die, we have no choice but to move my granddaughter to Camlorn, where she will have new security measures," said Valkanas

"I want you to pick four men that you know you can trust and take her there discreetly, you'll have help on this one," said Valkanas

"Are you familiar with the Shadow Organization?" asked Valkanas

"An organization composed of former Legionnaires, Blades, Thieves Guild, and Royal Guard. They have guarded the Empire in secret for hundreds of years, and they don't technically exist," said Jas

The King raised his eyebrows in surprise

"We've met before," explained Jas

"Well, they are sending one of their best operatives to help safeguard Maria, in fact he should be arriving shortly," said Valkanas

"What's their interest in this matter?" asked Jas

"If Zane gets the throne then things will get much more complicated around here," said Valkanas

"Makes since, but I would be very surprised if that's their only reason," said Jas

There was a knock on the door and a redguard dressed all in black walked in. He had close-cropped hair with specks of white in it, a medium build, and looked to be in his early 50's.

"Hello your majesty," he said bowing

"I'm the Shadow Operative you've been expecting, my name is Bergen," he said

"Hello Bergen, this is Major Rendar, Imperial Special Forces, he's in charge of delivering Maria safely to Camlorn," said Valkanas

Jas and Bergen shook hands

"Nice to meet you," said Jas

-

Jas walked into the Legion training room of the Royal Palace. High Rock was one of the few provinces left with any significant Legion presence, and the way things were going that probably wasn't going to last much longer, there was talk that General Vexes was going to desert.

"Jack!" shouted Jas

A large Imperial put down the weights he was lifting and walked up to Jas smiling. Jack Manners and Jas had been serving together for 6 years; they had fought side by side against Mehrunes Dagon's forces.

"What's up?" he said slapping Jas's hand

"I got a job for you," said Jas

Jas told him about transporting Maria to Camlorn.

"Count me in," he said with a wink

-

Maria was practicing magic when Jas walked into her room; she was sitting cross-legged making objects soar through her room with her mind. Maria was a prodigy, everyone said so, she was ten years old and she had mastered the kind of high-level spells that took most wizards several years to learn, and in just four months of training with Jas she was a first class fighter, the Palace Guards had the bruises to prove it. She was going to make a great leader someday, everyone knew it.

"Hey kiddo," said Jas

"Hi Jas," said Maria

She jumped off her bed while making all the objects go back to their proper place with her mind.

"What's up?" she said

"We're going on a trip," he said

He told her that her security at the Palace was compromised and that she was going to be moved to Camlorn.

"Why do we put up with Zane?" asked Maria

"High Rock politics are a little above me kiddo," said Jas

"Will you protect me Jas?" asked Maria

"You're talking to Major Jas Rendar, of course I'm going to protect you," said Jas

Maria hugged him

"Thanks Jas,"

-

Bergen was running through his hand-to-hand forms in the Royal Courtyard, he moved faster than the human eye could track. It was a cold night, and you could see the steam coming off his body. He suddenly looked up and saw Jas staring down at him, Jas walked over to him and threw him a towel.

"Thanks," said Bergen wiping the sweat from his face

"I want to know that you're going to do everything you can to help me protect Maria," said Jas

"You shouldn't let yourself get to attached to your charge, it clouds judgment," said Bergen

"Answer the damn question," said Jas

"Yes, I will do everything in my power to protect Maria, that _is_ why I am here," said Bergen

"One of the reasons I'm sure, care to tell me what the other is?" asked Jas

Bergen just stared at him

"Didn't think so, we leave at 5 in the morning, don't make us late," said Jas turning to leave

Bergen resumed his forms; this time moving through them so fast his movement was a blur.

-

"Morning hotshot, want a cup of tea?" said Jack

He was sitting at a table in the Royal Cafeteria and Jas had just walked in.

"Sure, no sugar," said Jas sitting down

Jack passed him a cup

"Looking forward to our road trip?" asked Jack

"Its going to be a blast," said Jas with a grin

-

Everyone was at the gates of the Royal palace preparing the horses for the journey, it was a warm and sunny morning, a good morning for a trip, you could see the Dragontail Mountains in the distance, the snow-capped peaks looked magnificent. Everyone got on their horses and the Palace Gates opened up, and they trotted through.

-

"Tell me about Camlorn Jas," said Maria as they were trotting through a forest path with the sound of birds all around them.

"Camlorn is a former Imperial Fortress, and is still built like a fortress today, you'll be safe there," said Jas

"Is it a fun place?" asked Maria

"It's not as interesting as Daggerfall but it's not bad," chuckled Jas

"Figures," muttered Maria

"You still got me," Jas reminded her

Maria groaned louder than ever. Jas laughed.

"I've got to go ahead, I'll be back in 2 hours," said Bergen

"What for?" asked Jas suspiciously

"I'm going to do some scouting," said Bergen

"2 hours," said Jas

"Yes sir," said Bergen, his horse the charged forward and he was gone

-

Four hours later, they exited the forest and arrived on a plain it was nearing sunset.

"Where the bloody hell is Bergen!" shouted Jas, he hadn't seen the damn operative since he galloped off.

"Maybe he got lost," said one of the soldiers

"Like hell he did," said Jas

Bergen had gone off to do his other assignment, Jas was sure of it. An arrow flew overhead and 50 people dressed in Dark Brotherhood armor came out of hiding and surrounded them.

"He betrayed us!" shouted a soldier

"No he didn't," said Jack, he got off his horse and went to stand in front of the Assassins

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" roared Jas, getting off his horse

"Don't be like that it's just business," said Jack

"Business! This isn't fraking business you bastard this is murder!" shouted Jas

"Maria! Get behind us!" ordered Jas

"I'm not the murderer Jas, you are, I tried valiantly to save the princess but failed and narrowly escaped with my life, I was even wounded in the process," he said taking out his dagger and stabbing himself in the thy

"You see?" he grunted

"The King will never believe you!" said Jas

"The King is dead, must have been something he ate," chuckled Jack

One of the soldiers tried to charge him but Jas put his hand in front of him.

"Wait!" he snapped

"What did Zane promise you? What was the cost of betraying your friends and your oaths!" shouted Jas

"I get a nice promotion and a handsome amount of gold if that's what you mean. You got to look out for yourself, in case you haven't noticed the Empire is crumbling around us," said Jack

"I swear to the gods that I'm going to kill you Manners," said Jas

"Right," said Jack chuckling

"Wait until I'm gone," he said to the assassins then walked into the forest

The assassins charged

"Keep her safe!" shouted Jas

Jas fought like a lion, he had never fought so hard in his life, they all did their best, but one by one the guards fell until only Jas and Maria remained. Jas cut down the assassins left and right, so did Maria, she had picked up the sword of one of the fallen guards, and fought just like Jas had taught her, she and Jas cut down the assassins until there were none left. When it was all over, Jas looked for Maria and saw her lying on the ground covered in blood.

"No," he whispered and bent down and scooped her into his arms

She opened her eyes and looked at Jas "I did pretty good didn't I," she said in a whisper

"Yeah, you did great," said Jas, tears streaming down his eyes.

She closed her eyes and went still.

"Maria?" said Jas franticly; there was a lump in his throat

"Maria!" screamed Jas shaking her, she didn't open her eyes

"No," said Jas shaking his head

"No,"

"NOOOOOO!"


	12. Chapter 12: The Island

Kyle and Bergen clashed swords under a starry night sky. Kyle was landing strike after strike on Bergen and was getting close to making contact when he overreached and Bergen knock his sword out of his hand, Bergen picked it up and handed it back to him.

"You're getting better," said Bergen throwing Kyle a water skin.

Bergen had taken it upon himself to train Kyle in every form of combat he knew, the kid had potential and Bergen wanted to tap it, he was teaching him everything from swordplay to magic. It had been 3 weeks since the events at Firsthold and the team was now in Hammerfell and was planning to meet its Shogun, the redguard equivalent of a king, the following afternoon, to talk about the problems of the province.

"You're so much like your father," said Bergen

Bergen had told Kyle he had served with Mathias in Skyrim after they left Firsthold.

"Do you know how he died?" asked Kyle looking at Bergen

"He died defending what he thought was right, he died a warriors death," said Bergen staring at the moon

"I was told he died closing an Oblivion Gate, is that true?" asked Kyle

"Your father was a hero," said Bergen, not answering the question

-

"Goooood Morning everyone," said Mary, walking out of her tent and taking a seat around the fire.

Mary looked particularly radiant this morning. Her blood red hair was shimmering with the reflection of the sun, and her green eyes had a particular sparkle to them.

"What's put you in such a good mood?" asked Tark, taking the sausages he had been cooking out of the fire

"I'm always in a good mood," said Mary

"Right," snorted Zaquarl, who was on the ground reclining against the firewood.

"Well I start off in a good mood anyway," said Mary

"What's for breakfast?" asked Kyle who had just jogged up to the camp

Kyle had taken up jogging as part of Bergen's training regimen, Kyle was learning a lot from the man. Bergen knew more about war and magic than anybody Kyle had ever met, maybe even more than his father had.

"Sausages," said Tark scooping them onto plates for everybody

"I'm getting pretty tired of sausages; we've been eating them for two bloody weeks straight! This is Hammerfell for crying out loud, the whole bloody province is suppose to be full of fruit orchards!" shouted Mary

"Your good moodsss alwaysss ssstart out ssstrong, and then plummet after about 10 minutesss," said Zaquarl, helping himself to a sausage.

"We aren't going to be eating fruit for quite a while, the way this drought is going," said Tark

"I don't know how Bergen plans to fix it, he's not a god. And fixing the drought is probably the only thing that will keep Hammerfell from joining the Tamriel Coalition," said Kyle

The Tamriel Coalition had started a campaign aimed at getting provinces to join up with them; the offers they were making were rather tempting, considering how little the Empire was helping them right now. So far, the only province that was part of the Tamriel Coalition was the Summerset Isles. However, that would not last for long.

Jas Rendar walked out of his tent and went to sit by the fire.

"Good Morning Major," said Kyle

"Good Morning Lieutenant, Is Bergen back yet?" asked Jas

"He's right here!" shouted Bergen, who was approaching the camp

"Take down the camp, we're going to Sentinel," ordered Bergen

-

The cities of Hammerfell had their own unique style, they blended Imperial and Akaviri culture with that of Yokunda, the legendary redguard homeland, of which little was known. Sentinel was comprised of tall stone and wood buildings known as pagodas, the streets were filled with leafy trees, which were withering from lack of water, and magnificent stone statues with moss growing over them, you could see the people, mostly redguards, walking calmly and proudly on the streets going about their business.

"This city is amazing!" said Kyle, looking at the sophisticated architecture

"It is a fantastic sight," said Bergen walking down the street

"Were you born in Hammerfell Bergen?" asked Kyle

"Yes, but this is the first time I've been back in several years, its nice to be home," said Bergen

Bergen and Kyle had grown a relationship almost similar to that of a father and a son; it was almost as if Kyle was walking with Mathias again. A pair of Samurai walked down the street dressed in the bulky, but strangely light armor of their order, the armor had the designs of animals on it. The Samurai were the equivalent of Royal Guards, and were said to be the fiercest warriors on Tamriel, they were trained from birth in every form of combat, as well as in magic and diplomacy, their order had originated in Yokunda and they had come to Tamriel with the rest of the redguards when The Disaster occurred. Little was known of The Disaster, the great tragedy that befell Yokunda, some say the continent sank into the ocean, some say something far more terrible occurred, no one except maybe a few redguards knew what really happened. What befell Yokunda was one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

Bergen stopped and bowed to the Samurai, the rest of the group mimicked him. The Samurai bowed back and went on their way. The group approached The Bastion, the great pagoda that housed the Shogun and the other leaders of Hammerfell. Two ancient stone dragons, one on either side of the doors, guarded the entrance to The Bastion. The team approached the doors and they automatically split open.

"Welcome to The Bastion, Commander," said the greeter at the doors

"The Shogun is waiting for you,"

-

The Shogun was sitting cross-legged in a room filled with ornate fountains that were not running; he looked to be well into his 70's and had a short goatee. Bergen entered the room and the Shogun opened his eyes.

"I know why you are here Commander," said the Shogun

"You want me to send our brothers and sisters to fight the Tamriel Coalition," said the Shogun

"But what do you have to offer us in return?" asked the Shogun

"Can you end this draught? Because that is what the Tamriel Coalition promised us in return for our help," said the Shogun

Bergen got down on his knees, and looked the Shogun in the eyes.

"How does the Tamriel Coalition plan on ending the draught, mighty warrior?" asked Bergen

"Their engineers will construct aqueducts that will bring glacial water from the mountains, we do not have the resources to do this ourselves," said the Shogun

"Their plan will take too long, by the time it has been implemented the orchards will be beyond saving," said Bergen

"Do you have a better plan Commander?" asked the Shogun

"Are you familiar with the Dwemer?" asked Bergen

-

Mary and Kyle were looking at the mural on the wall of the lobby; it depicted a brief history of Sentinel, starting with ships landing on its shores, then the building of the city, a great fire, a war, a hurricane, another war, and finally Oblivion Gates opening throughout the city.

"That's a lot of conflict," said Kyle

"Peace is boring, who wants to read a history of peace?" asked Mary

"Good point," said Kyle, staring at Mary, then realized what he was doing and shook his head.

Things had almost gotten back to normal with Mary, they had an unspoken agreement not to talk about any feelings they might or might not have for one another.

"How much longer is Bergen going to be?" asked Tark leaning back against a wall.

"Not a clue," said Kyle

-

Jas was sitting down on a bench when he heard something that caught his attention

"Zane is starting to become a major pain in the ass,"

Jas whipped his head around and saw two aides talking

"If I hear him prattle on about the Coalition one more time I'm going to choke him, the only reason he joined the damn thing is because his own people kicked his ass off the throne," said the aide

Jas got up and went to the aides

"Are you talking about Zane Tyranus?" asked Jas

"The very same, ousted King of High Rock, and Tamriel Coalition representative. I don't know what the hell the Coalition was thinking sending that scumbag here, he almost makes me want to go join up with the Legion out of spite," said the aide

Jas's face went dark.

"I want to know everything you know," said Jas seriously

-

Bergen walked into the lobby and addressed the team.

"I've brokered a deal with the Shogun, he will aide the Empire in exchange for us curing the draught," said Bergen

"How do you plan on doing that?" asked Tark

"We are going to bring the Dwemer weather machine in Stros M'kai to Sentinel," said Bergen

"Weather Machine?" asked Kyle

"The Dwemer were masters of science and magic and combined the two to create a machine capable of controlling the weather," said Bergen

"With all their knowledge I don't know how their race could have been destroyed," mused Kyle

"They tried to touch the stars and got burned," said Bergen

"What?" said Zaquarl

"Don't worry about it, the disappearance of the Dwemer is a subject for only the most dedicated of scholars," said Bergen

"The Shogun is lending us a team of Samurai to help us clear out the ruin on Stros M'kai, and a team of engineers to help us safely remove the machine, we are going to meet them at the docks, lets get going," said Bergen

"Count me out, I've got business to take care of," said Jas who had just walked up to the group

"No you don't, you're coming with us," said Bergen

"Sorry not this time," said Jas

"In case you've forgotten, until your 6 months are up you are the property of the Legion, and you will do as I say," said Bergen

"Court martial me," said Jas walking away

-

The salty air was whipping through Mary's hair as their ship crashed against the waves on their way to Stros M'kai. Mary found herself staring at Kyle and licking her lips, he was rather handsome with his chiseled features and sandy blonde hair; Mary promptly slapped herself in the face.

"What'sss wrong with you?" asked Zaquarl perplexed

Mary threw her hands into the air "I don't know!" she said exasperated

Bergen walked onto the deck

"Alright gather around, there are some things you need to know before we arrive," said Bergen

"The Empire is highly unpopular on Stros M'kai due to a rather complex series of events some 450 years ago, the islanders of Stros M'kai have long memories and it would be best if you did not let anyone know that we are Imperial Legion, we are going to need the Islanders help to get to the ruin," said Bergen

"I've never heard this story," said Kyle

"That's because it's not told outside of Stros M'kai, the Empire suffered a rather embarrassing defeat at the hands of a redguard pirate, but we don't really have time for a history lesson right now we'll be arriving shortly," said Bergen

-

Jas had collected every scrap of information he could on Zane, and was pleasantly surprised to find that his old friend Jack Manners was still working for him. After Zane was kicked off the throne, he and Manners fled to Orsinium and went to work for the goblins, taking a substantial amount of the Royal Treasury with him. Zane apparently brokered deals between the goblins and weapons manufactures and Manners was captain of Zane's security force. Ever since he had found out they were in Hammerfell Jas had only one thought on his mind; revenge, and he would kill any stupid son of a bitch dumb enough to get between him and Zane.

"So you actually work for Zane Tyranus? What's that like? I hear he is a real asshole," said Jas, casually chatting up an enforcer.

Jas was outside a busy bar that Zane had purchased to do his dealings.

"You got that right buddy, if the pay wasn't so good I'd kill the son of a bitch where he stood," said the enforcer

"I feel you brother," chuckled Jas

"Want a hit?" asked Jas holding out a flask

The enforcer took a swig

"Thanks man," he said

"So tell me about the captain, is he a dick too?" asked Jas

"Manners? He's a real stand up guy everybody likes him," said the enforcer, slurring his words

"You don't look to good, you feeling alright?" said Jas smiling

The enforcer collapsed and Jas caught him.

"Sweet dreams asshole," muttered Jas

He took the enforcer into the alley and stripped off his uniform and put it on, he then walked into the bar.

-

Mary was admiring the sight of the green tropical mountains in the distance; you could see the fog rolling off them and the birds soaring through the air. Kyle was staring at Mary's back and admiring another sight, Tark walked by laughing; Kyle shook his head and went after him.

"Don't say anything, I'm done denying it, are you happy now?" said Kyle to Tark

"No, but I will be when you tell her that," said Tark

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," said Kyle

"Whatever you say," said Tark

The team had arrived on Stros M'kai and were waiting in the town for their guide to show up, the town was composed of straw and wood buildings, it might have looked ramshackle, but the buildings were quite skillfully built, the town had a very relaxed feeling. Zaquarl looked at the eight Samurai in the group; they had left their ornate armor in Sentinel and were dressed in attire more suited for the rainforest like everyone else in the group. The Samurai were quiet and brooding, _a strange bunch_, thought Zaquarl.

"You must be dee group I'm guiding to dee ruins," said a young muscular redguard with a tropical accent, dressed in just shorts and no shirt, he had a machete on his waist.

"At least you came properly dressed, I can't tell you how many adventurers I've guided through these jungles dressed in heavy armor, never saw many of dem again, if they don't pass out from heat stroke, they get caught in vines or sink into quicksand," said the guide

"My name is Maleko," said the guide

"Shall we get movin?"

-

"You the new guy?" asked the bartender as Jas sat down

"Yeah, first day, so where's the captain?" asked Jas

"Manners? He's playing cards in the back room with some associates of his," said the bartender, passing Jas a drink

"Here on the house," said the bartender

"Thanks mate," said Jas, drinking it down

Jas got up to make his way to the back room, when something made him stop.

"Turn around, slowly," said the bartender dangerously

Jas held up his hands and slowly turned around, the bartender had a crossbow in his hands and had it pointed at Jas's chest.

"Want to tell me why you're really here?" asked the bartender

-

The team was making their way up the mountain; all around them was the sound of animals. Kyle watched as a monkey jumped from tree to tree through the dense foliage.

"This place isn't what I expected," said Kyle

"Dee Island has changed her face many times over dee years, mon," said Maleko

"Long ago she held a great Dwemer City, then we arrived here, then dee Imperials came here and built their towns, they tried to tell us how to act, how to think, we didn't like that mon,"

"I've only seen one town, and it didn't look Imperial at all," said Kyle

"That's because dee Island didn't like dee Imperials mon, she tore down their towns, and shook dem off of her like a dog shaking off her fleas,"

"I've never heard the story," said Kyle

"It's not one we like to tell to mainlanders mon,"

Maleko suddenly whipped out his hand and grabbed something in mid air that had jumped towards Kyle, it was a colorful fanged snake that was writhing and dripping venom in Maleko's grip, Maleko threw it into the jungle.

"Dee Island does not like outsiders mon, watch your step," warned Maleko

"Thanks mate, what would have happened if that thing had bit me?" asked Kyle, breathing heavily.

"You don't want to know mon,"

-

"You really want to know?" asked Jas staring down the bartender's crossbow

"I've come here to kill Jack Manners and Zane Tyranus,"

"Well why didn't you just say so?" said the bartender throwing down his crossbow.

"I lied about Jack being in the backroom, he doesn't drink here, he drinks at the Black Heart, it's a bar on the other side of town; I'll draw you a map,"

Jas raised his eyebrows "Why are you helping me?"

"Because I hate those bastards too,"

"Business has been bad ever since Zane bought this place,"

The bartender handed him the map

"I don't know where Zane is, but Manners will,"

-

You could see the massive domes and towers that were the Dwemer ruins of Stros M'kai peaking out of the rainforest, they were overgrown with jungle and you could see a flock of birds fly out of a hole in one of the ruined domes. Maleko took out his machete and started cutting down vines on the side of the mountain, revealing massive bronze doors, he pushed them open and hundreds of bats came flying out, the group dropped to the ground and covered their heads until the bats passed.

"You take this path down mon," said Maleko

"You're not coming with us?" asked Kyle

"I have no wish to dance with dee ghosts of dee past mon,"

Maleko suddenly turned and looked Bergen straight in the eyes.

"You should listen to dee ghosts; they know what they talk about mon,"

Bergen narrowed his eyes.

Maleko walked back into the forest and disappeared.

The group turned and faced the entrance, then walked in.


	13. Chapter 13: Wrath

"Thisss iz weird," said Zaquarl

They were still in the dark except for torches and had not yet emerged from the tunnel, but all around them was the noise of machinery.

"Its going to get weirder," said Bergen

"How can anything be working in here after thousands of years?" asked Mary

"The Dwemer didn't do anything half assed; they made their inventions to last."

The group emerged from the tunnel and into a massive room with pillars so tall you couldn't see the tops of them. The room was lit with orange lights that ran along the wall, and there was what appeared to be a man-sized statue in the center of the room, when the group approached its eyes glowed fiery red and it raised its head. It opened its mouth and a horrible mechanical screeching sound came out, it charged at the group with surprising speed, Bergen jumped into the air and the statue brought its fist down denting the metal floor where Bergen had been standing a second before. Two Samurai came forward and blasted it with lightning the statue shook violently then fell to the ground.

"What the hell was that thing?"

"That was a Dwemer Centurion, pure mechanical muscle powered by an energy crystal, and enchanted with magic that gives it rudimentary intelligence," explained Bergen

"Expect to run into many more, when you do either blast them with lightning or stab them at the joints."

Bergen pulled out a weathered map

"There are two paths to the weather machine on this map, but given the age of this map there's no way to know whether they're accessible anymore. Let's split up, we'll communicate with these amulets, they have been enchanted so that your voice may flow between one amulet to the other."

Bergen passed Kyle an amulet

"You will take two Samurai and 6 engineers with your team, listen to Dr. Saran, he is a leading expert on the Dwemer, keep in contact at all times."

Dr. Saran was an ageing dark elf who Bergen had recruited for the mission.

"Good Hunting," said Kyle

-

The Black Heart attracted a rough crowd; its usual patrons included thieves, assassins, murderers, and even a necromancer or two. Jack Manners felt right at home.

"Barkeep! More whiskey!" shouted Manners

He was drinking off a particularly rough day, that he was sure could not get any worse. Jack buried his face in his whiskey and came for air with a satisfied sigh; whiskey always made everything better, thought Manners. Manners was about to have the barkeep top him off when someone grabbed his head and slammed it down on the table three times, the person then yanked Manners around by the hair.

"You!" shouted Manners in shock

"Me," replied Jas coldly

Jas kicked Jack's stool out from under him and he fell to the floor.

-

Kyle, Mary, Tark, and Zaquarl were making their way through the ruins, marveling at the strange machines that they passed by.

"You're looking at the future," wheezed Dr. Soran

"I thought I was looking at the past," replied Kyle with a smirk

"What you're looking at is technology and science, the two pillars that will form the foundation of the new era. All that you see before you will come to be again."

"Including the destruction of an entire race? I thought that science was what destroyed the Dwemer."

"Arrogance was what destroyed the Dwemer lad, they were reckless in their pursuit of greater power, they tried to create a god, and in doing so they meddled with forces completely beyond their understanding and paid the price."

"How the hell do you create a god?" said Kyle shocked; the group stopped and stared at Dr. Soran.

"The Dwemer attempted to warp space and time with the beating heart of a god. They succeeded, they're entire race was ripped from reality, for all intents and purposes the Dwemer no longer exist."

Kyle just stared

"I'm surprised Bergen didn't tell you, it's the most important part of Dwemer history, in fact it's the last part of Dwemer history," said Dr. Soran

"Where did they get the heart?"

"I have no idea; I do know who the heart belonged to however: Lorkhan."

"I know that name," said Tark

"You should, he was the first god, if you believe in such myths," said Dr. Soran

"You don't put much stock in the gods I take it," noted Kyle

"Here is one fact that is true wherever you go lad; every myth, legend, and religion, is based upon a firm foundation of bullshit."

The doctor walked ahead of the group, clearly done talking.

-

Jack Manners had his dagger halfway out when Jas grabbed his arm and slammed it down on the table breaking the wrist, he slammed it again breaking the forearm and sent the dagger clattering to the floor. Jack grunted and hit Jas hard in the face with his other arm, Jas leaned into it, the blow broke his nose, Jas caught Jacks arm and flipped him over his shoulder, Jack landed on a table breaking it in half.

"You've gotten soft Jack; I was looking forward to more of a fight." Said Jas darkly

Jas snapped his nose back into place and advanced on Jack. Jack suddenly spun his legs and knocked Jas to the floor. Jack pushed the broken bones in his arm back into place and healed them with a spell.

"This is just my way of warming up," he said

Jack summoned a Daedric gauntlet on his right fist; he then brought it down where Jas's head had been a split second before. Jas lashed out with a powerful kick to Jacks ribs, Jack fell back several feet, and Jas got up and charged at him.

-

Kyle's team entered a round room about 50 feet wide, the walls were lined with alcoves designed to hold Dwemer Centurions, they were all empty, except for one.

"This is unlike any Centurion I've ever seen," whispered Dr. Soran examining the Centurion

The Centurion was roughly 7 feet tall, and unlike the other Centurions that Kyle had been fighting through; this one had polished bronze armor and a sleek look. Its face looked like a warriors mask and it had a strange symbol on its chest, its arms were not as bulky as other Centurions were either.

"I don't think it's such a good idea to get to close to that thing Doc," warned Kyle

"Kyle get over here and help me lay this Centurion down," said Dr. Soran

Kyle groaned it was no use arguing with the old man. Kyle went and tried to pull the Centurion out, as soon as he touched it its eyes glowed red, and it stepped out of its alcove.

"Frak!" shouted Kyle, he pushed the doctor out of the way and pulled out his sword.

The Centurion blocked Kyle's blow and knocked him across the room, the group pulled out their weapons and surrounded the Centurion

-

Jack swung his gloved fist at Jas's head; Jas caught it and slammed Jack against the wall. He pinned the fist with his left hand then started beating Jack's head with his right. Jack brought his knee up and pushed Jas off him. Jack spat out some blood then advanced on Jas. Jas picked up a chair and broke it on Jack's head, Jack crumpled to the ground and Jas kicked him in the ribs.

"What's the matter Jack? Don't tell me you're tired? We still have a long way to go," said Jas kicking Jack again

Jack groaned in pain

"Go to hell Jas."

"You save me a seat, but first why don't you tell me where Zane is?"

Jas brought his foot down on Jack again but this time he caught it and pulled Jas to the ground with him.

-

One of the Samurai sent a blast of lightning at the Centurion, it just kept on coming. The Centurion pointed its hand at the Samurai and it suddenly opened up to reveal a bronze nozzle, the nozzle glowed red and emitted an incredibly hot stream of fire, the Samurai put up a shield, but the flame was still burning through. Kyle was back on his feet and blasted the Centurion and the Samurai with sub-zero wind; the flame extinguished and the Samurai fell to the ground badly burned.

"This is one tough son of a bitch!"

Tark strung an arrow with an explosive tip and shot a perfect shot in the unprotected area around the Centurion's left shoulder, the arrow exploded and the arm fell to the ground. The Centurion retaliated by picking up the arm and throwing it at Tark with enough force to knock him flat on his ass.

Zaquarl leapt at the Centurion and the Centurion caught him by the collar and threw him across the room, Zaquarl flew through the air hissing and landed on the far wall, where he slumped to the ground.

Mary charged at the Centurion. The Centurion lashed out to grab her but she jumped over its head and jammed her double-ended sword into an opening in its armor. The Centurion opened its mouth and emitted a deafening mechanical roar. Mary was shaken off the Centurion, the Centurion then grabbed her leg and threw her across the room, Kyle reached out with telekinesis and guided her back to the ground.

"That thing is really starting to piss me off!"

-

Jack and Jas were rolling across the floor, Jas grabbed Jack's arm in an arm bar and started pulling, Jack was screaming in agony, Jas kept pulling until he dislocated the arm, then he brought his heel down on Jack's stomach. Jack grabbed a wine bottle that rolled towards him and broke it over Jas's head, blood started flowing down Jas's face and Jack got up and went to the door handle, but he wasn't leaving, he put his dislocated arm into the handle and pulled until it painfully went back into place. He then picked up the broken wine bottle and charged at Jas. Jas acted quickly and picked up a mug and hit Jack across the side of the head, then brought the mug down on the hand carrying the bottle, it crashed to the ground. Jas hit Jack in the head again and he fell to the ground semiconscious.

Jas put his hand to his forehead and felt the blood, it wasn't too bad, no artery was nicked. Jas reached down, grabbed Jas by his hair, and started dragging him across the room.

"You always were a tough son of a bitch, I'll give you that," said Jas to the semiconscious Jack

-

The Centurion pointed his remaining hand at Kyle, Mary, and the remaining Samurai, it opened up revealing another nozzle. Kyle quickly brought up a shield which was met by a stream of projectiles, Kyle expanded the shield to encompass the rest of the group, then slammed the shield against the Centurion. The Centurion was pinned against the wall and Mary walked up to it and jammed her sword into its neck, the Centurions eyes dimmed and went dark, Kyle dropped the shield.

"Everyone alright?" he said

Zaquarl got to his feet growling and Tark pushed the Centurion's arm off his chest. The Samurai went to crouch beside his burned comrade; the rest of the group joined him.

"These burn's are pretty bad," said Dr. Soran

Kyle and the Samurai knelt over the burned man and started healing him, the burns started to recede after a while and the Samurai woke coughing.

"Get him some water," ordered Kyle

"His wounds are stabilized for now; he should be fine until we get back to Sentinel,"

Mary went to pick up the Centurions arm; she took out a dagger and started to dismantle it.

"What are you doing!" shouted Dr. Soran

"Collecting my trophy, you can have the rest of the Centurion Doc," said Mary

Mary extracted the flamethrower, the device was compact, she could probably attach it to her wrist.

"Let's get to the weather machine,"

-

Kyle's team entered the large room housing the weather machine and found Bergen's team already waiting for them. The weather machine was a large circular platform that had a large crystal in the center and a console with several levers that controlled the weather and crystal windows that displayed glowing writing.

"Did you forget how to use your amulet?" asked Bergen

"Sorry about that, we ran into something big and ugly and forgot about it,"

"Are we ready to teleport this thing out of here?" asked Kyle

"We will be in an hour, why don't you tell me what happened in the mean time?"

-

"WHERE'S ZANE!" roared Jas as he smashed Jack's arm in the door again

"Having a cup of tea with the devil," chuckled Jack

Jas slammed Jack's arm in the doorway again, Jack grimaced.

"Eventually your arm is going to pop off," noted Jas

"Fine, Zane is in the mine outside the city, the Shogun thinks it's just a coal mine, but it's actually a fire powder manufacturing plant,"

"Thanks,"

"I'll save you that seat in hell," said Jack

Jas smashed Jack's head in the doorway so hard that his skull cracked. Jas let his corpse drop to the floor and limped out of the bar.


	14. Chapter 14: Thunder

Jas was at the site of the fire powder manufacturing plant. There were several buildings and guard towers scattered around the work area, the main facility was underground and so was Zane. Jas had stolen an engineer's uniform to get past the security, and into the underground complex.

"You look like you went 10 rounds with an Ogre," commented a guard

Jas's face was heavily bruised from his fight with Jack Manners, he had cuts and bruises all over him, Jas would have healed the wounds except he didn't know anything about healing or magic for that matter, he just knew how to kick ass.

"Got into a bar fight last night,"

"I guess you didn't win!" chuckled the guard.

Jas walked down the tunnel and into the underground complex.

-

The Bastion had been rebuilt several times over the years, from war, natural disaster, and renovation. Each time it had been rebuilt on top of the ruins of the old structure, the result was that the 500-foot pagoda that you saw on the streets of Sentinel only represented a fifth of the Bastion's true size. The Bastion had hundreds of underground floors, some having not seen light for hundreds of years. These floors had many uses, from storage, to conducting secret meetings, to highly classified research. It was on one such floor that a large group of engineers was clearing a space for some unspecified purpose; that purpose became clear a few seconds later when there was a massive explosion of light and a group of people appeared along with a large metal structure.

"Commander Bergen, we're glad to see that you were successful, are you ready to begin the installation?"

"Yes, are the healers standing by?" said Bergen

"We have set up an area set up right over there for you to take care of your wounded,"

Bergen took a long look at the weather machine, and then helped carry the wounded Samurai to the healers.

-

Jas was riding on a miner's cage that was carrying him deeper into the complex. He was getting close to his revenge; he just needed to go a little further. The miner's cage stopped and Jas got out, according to the schematics Jas had looked over while on the surface, Zane's office would be at the back of the underground facility. Jas walked out of the tunnel and felt his jaw drop. Zane had been busy, Jas was staring at hundreds of basins, each 50 feet wide and 30 feet deep, all of them filled to the brim with fire powder; the basins went on for what seemed like miles. _There is enough fire powder here to turn half of Hammerfell into a smoking crater! _Thought Jas. Zane was an industrious little weasel if nothing else.

"What are you doing here!" shouted an angry looking supervisor

Jas reached for his dagger.

"You're supposed to be in the steam room getting the blasted gears working!"

Jas let out his breath.

"Sorry sir, the boss man sent me over here to see if there wuz anything else y'all needed," said Jas, dropping into a miner's accent

"Yeah! I need that incompetent dumbass to get off of his fat lazy ass, and get these goddamn gears working, so this fracking fire powder can get to the surface!" roared the supervisor turning red with anger

"I'll pass along that message sir," said Jas

"You be sure to that, now get the hell out of here before I break my foot off in your inbred Breton ass!"

"There's no need to get racial here sir,"

The supervisor turned a violent red.

"If I wanted to get racial, then I would point out that your entire race has womanly features, bad breath, and bitchy attitudes, now shut the hell up and get moving!"

"Right away sir," said Jas, stifling a laugh

Truth was Jas rather liked the supervisor, he reminded Jas of his old drill sergeant, gods how Jas had hated that old son of a bitch. He liked to make Jas do 500 pushups in a row, and then whenever Jas paused he would zap him with lightning and laugh hysterically.

"Ahh good times," sighed Jas nostalgically

-

Zane was sitting up in his office pouring himself a large glass of brandy; things were not going well. Jack Manners was dead, according to the Samurai reports he was killed in an extremely violent manner, his face had been so disfigured that they had to bring Zane in to identify him; his head had been cracked open and his brains were leaking out, Zane had spent the last several hours vomiting. Then on top of that, the fire powder pumps to the surface weren't working, which meant that Zane's life was endangered not only because he was sitting on several hundred thousand tons of fire powder, but because Radek was going to be pissed when he didn't get his shipment, especially since he paid 2 million drakes for it. Radek did not like to be made a fool of; in fact, he would literally have Zane's balls on a platter if he didn't receive his shipment.

"Gods why me?" moaned Zane

Things had gotten worse and worse ever since he ascended the throne, despite the fact that Zane had framed Major Rendar for Maria Valkanas's murder, nobody in the royal court believed him when he said he didn't do it, apparently they had very much liked the little girl. Zane hadn't lasted 3 weeks on the throne when the Royal Guard had come banging on his door intent on killing him; Zane had barely escaped with his life. After that, he had come to work for Radek; brokering deals and supplying armaments. Radek paid well enough and Zane was on his way up when suddenly the pumps stopped working and Jack Manners was killed. Zane was sure that someone was after him as well, but he was prepared; in the room with him were six ex-Samurai, whoever was after him was going to be in for a surprise.

-

"So this is the weather machine, I must admit, it is an impressive sight," said the Shogun

"That it is," said Bergen

"Is it ready?"

"We're about to find out,"

Bergen gave the signal and the engineers engaged the weather machine's power source, the room was bathed in a bright glow as the lights on the machine came alive.

"Now lets see if we can make it rain,"

-

Jas was in a room filled with gigantic steaming boilers, there were people running all around adjusting them.

"Alright, we got the steam dialed up to 11; make sure that power flows to the gears, it would be very bad if it builds up,"

"Don't touch that!" shouted an engineer to a worker

"If that lever breaks we're screwed!"

The worker quickly pulled back his hand

"What do you want?" said the engineer to Jas

"Just seeing if you need anything,"

"We're good,"

"Then I'll be on my way

-

"That should do it," said Dr. Soran

He had finished adjusting the levers and dials on the weather machine, it was now emitting a soft humming noise and writing was rapidly flowing across its crystal panels.

"Let's get on the teleporter and go see if it's working,"

The Bastion's underground floors were connected by a haphazard system of lifts, elevators, and stairs; so teleporters had been installed on all of the important floors to facilitate transportation. The group mad their way to the glowing, blue and red crystal platform and stepped on.

The group emerged on the roof of the Bastion in a brilliant flash of light.

"So how long is this going to take?" asked the Shogun

"No idea, the last time a weather machine was used was well over 3000 years ago, unless you count the rumors surrounding the Mournhold Ash Storms,"

"This is a perfect time to get stuff off your chest, don't you think?" whispered Tark to Kyle

"Drop it,"

"Not going to happen, this is _gold_ baby, and you don't drop gold," grinned Tark

"What ever happened between you and Kaleena?" asked Kyle

"Go right ahead, doesn't bother me," shrugged Tark

"I'm going to go stand over there for a little while," said Kyle pointing

"I think I'll join you,"

"Good idea, I've always wondered if Dark Elves could fly"

-

Jas had arrived at the back of the mine, and was staring at the doors to Zane's office. This was it, he was going to kill the son of a bitch who had destroyed his life, he should feel ecstatic, but he did not. He just felt a cold since of purpose, every single thing he had done during the past six years had lead him to this moment, _I suppose some might call that destiny, _thought Jas. Jas took a deep breath and burst into the room.

-

"Mary, can we talk?" asked Kyle

Mary turned to look at him

"Sure, what's up?" she asked

"I'm not really sure how to say this…..I….umm…you see….the thing is…..what I'm trying to say…"

Mary raised her eyebrows

"Ooookay, not sure I'm following,"

Kyle shook his head and tried again

"I think I like you as more than a friend!" he said, just a little too loudly

Tark threw his hands into the air and started dancing on the other side of the roof.

Mary's face turned white with shock, she opened her mouth then closed it then opened it again

"I can't Kyle…..I just…..can't, I'm sorry."

Mary then turned and ran away

Tark dropped his arms and stopped dancing. Kyle just stood there staring into space, he didn't even hear when Dr. Soran shouted

"Look it's starting!"

Dark storm clouds gathered overhead and started swirling.

-

Zane spilled brandy on himself as a scary looking Breton burst into the room; he and Zane stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before Zane finally realized who the bruised face belonged to.

"Rendar!"

Jas closed and locked the doors and then broke off the handle, preventing them from being opened from the inside.

"Well that was smart, I take it you didn't notice my bodyguards?" sneered Zane

"I saw them, I'm sorry they had to be brought into this," said Jas calmly

"I suppose you escaped from prison when the goblins attacked the Imperial City?"

"I was released on good behavior,"

Zane chuckled

"And you killed Manners too, well done, but your journey comes to an end here," said Zane smugly,

He was quite relieved; the Samurai would easily be able to dispose of Rendar.

"Yes it does," said Jas, completely calm

"What do you think is going to happen here Rendar? You can't possibly win, you're going to die!" snarled Zane, slightly unnerved by Jas's calmness.

"So are you," replied Jas throwing a bronze metal stick on Zane's desk.

Zane jumped out of his chair in shock, _the steam release lever!_ With out it the pressure in the boilers would build until they exploded, and when that happened the fire powder would ignite and everything in the mine would be incinerated!

"The alarms would have started blaring as soon as the pressure began to build!"

"They've been blaring for the past 40 minutes, I took the liberty of disconnecting them in this section of the mine, they were becoming really annoying," said Jas

The Samurai exchanged looks and went to try to get the doors open.

"You're going to die too!" shrieked Zane

"I've been dead for six years, my body just hasn't realized it yet," said Jas coldly

There was a loud explosion in the distance, followed by a much louder explosion. The ground started shaking and a blast of fire blew open the doors.

-

Jas floated in silence, he felt completely weightless and at peace, the space around him was dark and then suddenly there was a bright white light. Jas heard the light call out to him.

_Jaaaasssss_

Jas reached out and the light enveloped him in a warm embrace, and then he saw a familiar face.

"Hello Maria,"

Maria smiled

"Welcome home Jas,"

-

All above the City of Sentinel storm clouds were gathering, and then with a loud crack of thunder, a torrent of rain came washing down on the city.

Bergen stared up at the sky; there was another flash of light in the distance, much brighter this time.

"With every rain comes a new beginning," mused Bergen


	15. Chapter 15: Monsters

Radek stared down at the City of Orsinium from the balcony of his office. It was always night in Orsinium, one of the consequences of having a city built into a mountain. Orsinium was the City of Monsters, a haven for the outcasts of Tamriel; Radek felt close to the city, it was more of a home to him than anywhere else. Orsinium was where Radek had been educated; the city had helped make him the man he was today.

Radek was thinking about the good/bad news he had just received, the good news was that Zane had blown himself up; the bad news was that he took Radek's 2 million-drake investment with him; Radek was torn between pure joy and violent anger, his aides were giving him his space.

"Radek," said a strange double voice behind him

"Verockus, please tell me you have good news," said Radek without turning around

"King Shargruz has been unable to convince the City Council, Orsinium has chosen to remain neutral in the coming war," said Verockus in his strange double voice

Radek turned around and stared at his friend. Verockus was a Dremora, and a member of the elite Valkynaz caste, the Dremora military elite. He and several million other Daedra had been stranded on Tamriel after Mehrunes Dagon's defeat. Radek had found him 9 ½ years ago in the Dragontail Mountains evading a company of 200 Legionnaires. Verockus had been eluding them and setting traps for them for over a week, he had killed well over 100 of them and they were pissed. They eventually got within 50 feet of him and were chasing him through the forest when Verockus took refuge in a cave. Radek, who had just started to forge the goblins into a nation, had stationed 150 soldiers in that very same cave, so when the Legion had went in after Verockus he became wedged between two armies and when the Legion decided to attack the goblins Verockus joined in on their side. In the bloodbath that followed Verockus and the goblins prevailed, after the battle Radek offered Verockus a hot meal and a place to sleep and the rest was history.

"What are the chances of the Daedra here joining with us?" asked Radek

Verockus ran his hands through his shaggy black hair; a peculiarity among Dremora. Dremora usually liked to keep their hair cut short, but Verockus had decided to grow his out after being stranded on Tamriel. Verockus was about 6 feet tall, muscular like Radek, and didn't wear armor, instead he dressed in black clothes with light chain mail underneath.

"Not great, you could hire a few of us out as mercenaries, but that's about all you can expect,"

Radek narrowed his eyes, he had thought as much, but it still made him angry.

"I hope they don't think they can escape the coming storm, they're a part of this world now, whether they like it or not,"

Radek shook his head

"This just arrived from Zit, it's the intelligence report on Vexes," said Verockus handing Radek a thin leather bound notebook.

Zit was the commander of the snow goblins, also known as Rieklings. The Rieklings were natives of Skyrim, which was where Vexes and his troops went after breaking away from the Empire; for the most part Vexes didn't bother the Rieklings, in fact, he had been paying them for supplies such as ore, fish, crops, and hides. Radek had Zit keep tabs on him; Vexes was a dangerous man, whatever he was planning was bound to be bad for everyone.

Radek opened up the report and read.

"This is insane, Vexes still hasn't left the Blue Moon Valley, he's been there for 18 months now. I want to know what that son of a bitch is up to, tell Zit to do whatever it takes to find out, bribe Vexes's troops, torture Vexes's troops, kill Vexes's troops, I don't care how he does it, just tell him to bring me something,"

Radek threw the report on his desk.

Radek turned and stared out his balcony for a few moments, then put his hands behind his head and turned back.

"Can the Council be persuaded to change their decision?" asked Radek

Verockus laughed, whenever a Dremora laughed it always sounded sinister.

"If the Council were to decide that the sky was green, then nothing in the world would convince them otherwise."

Radek nodded his head "We do it without the Council's support then, we'll start recruiting. The Tamriel Coalition will sponsor the largest Arena tournament in Orsinium history, and I want recruiters crawling all over it." Said Radek

Verockus raised an eyebrow "Arena tournament?"

"Everybody loves a good bloodbath," said Radek.

Radek strode out of his office and called his aides, who hastily began writing down his commands, the aides then left to carry out the orders.

Radek turned to Verockus

"I need a drink,"

-

Two goblins were meeting in a dark alley

"You tell our people to take out the Chapel of Stendarr in Chorrol, leave not one stone standing on another," said the shadowy figure.

"Lord Radek ordered our people to stop the bombings," said the smaller figure.

"Radek is a traitor to our cause, we have suffered at the hands of the 'official' races of Tamriel for hundreds of years, and now he is allying with them! The Tamriel Coalition is a sham, we can not get along with this scum, not after what they have done to us, they will use us just like they always have, and I will _die_ before I see my race return to a condemned existence."

"Lord Radek is the one who saved us from that life," countered the smaller goblin

"He has lost sight of what is important, if we don't do something he will destroy all that we have worked so hard to achieve!" said the shadowy figure

"I know what has to be done, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth," said the smaller goblin.

"Radek must be sacrificed for the good of our people; he would understand this better than anyone,"

-

Verockus looked over the competitors; they looked deranged, dangerous, mentally ill, and just plain psychotic; they were perfect.

"The prize is 250,000 drakes, the largest in Arena history."

Verockus stared at the competitors who all had sinister smiles on their faces.

"DO YOU WANT THIS PRIZE?" roared Verockus

The competitors raised their weapons into the air.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" they roared back

Verockus raised his hands into the air

"THEN TAKE IT! AND KILL ANYONE WHO GETS IN YOUR WAY!"

The crowd began stomping their feet and cheering. They were worked up now; they would kill anything that so much as looked at them wrong.

A goblin ran into the pit and shouted for Verockus.

"General!"

"What is it Riko?"

"We need to talk, in private,"

-

"So we have traitors, I didn't realize that Radek's decision was this unpopular,"

"They are planning on assassinating Lord Radek!" said Riko

"Then they are fools, they have a lot to learn if they think Radek is weak enough to be taken by assassination," said Verockus

"What are we going to do?" asked Riko

"You're going to find out more about the traitors and report back to me, all we have to do is kill the weasel on top and the rest will fall in line, when you know who that weasel is, you come to me,"

"Of course General, but what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about it, get a move on, _now_"

Riko took one look at Verockus and practically ran out of there, Verockus kept order through fear; it was the only way he knew how. Verockus gave a long sigh, he had always thought that Radek was trying to accomplish too much, too fast, it was only a matter of time before something like this would happen. At least Verockus no longer had to wait for the hammer to drop; he left the Arena and went to tell Radek the news.

-

Radek was sitting in his office reading good news for once; Morrowind had just joined the Tamriel Coalition and it looked like Valenwood was not going to be far behind; _this war is going to tear families apart_ thought Radek. Even though Morrowind was part of the Coalition now, over 50,000 Dark Elves were serving in the Imperial Legion. In the two months since the Battle of Imperial City the Legion had grown nearly 10 times in size, it was the largest it had been since the Oblivion War. It was funny, the Empire had been slowly dieing for 10 years, and when Radek decided to put it out of its misery, it suddenly decides that it wants to live; this war could have been avoided if the Empire had just _died._

Radek shook his head; this line of thought was not going to help him. The Coalition Defense Force, the military arm of the Tamriel Coalition, had grown immensely in size as well; it was now roughly equal in size to the Imperial Legion. With armies this large millions were guaranteed to die in the coming war; and there _had_ to be a war, the Empire was a relic; it _needed_ to die so that something better could take its place.

Radek reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of whiskey, it was aged perfectly; he grabbed a glass and poured himself a drink.

The plans for the Arena Tournament were going smoothly; the prize of 250,000 drakes had attracted the best fighters in Tamriel and merchants from across the continent were making their way to Orsinium to sell their wares at the Tournament, it was shaping up to be the greatest tournament in history. Radek really ought to think of a name for the tournament, maybe the Coalition Tournament or something along those lines.

Radek took a drink from his glass.

All this reminded him of when he had started out, he had been young and idealistic back then, out to make a difference, he was still out to make a difference but he had lost most of his idealism along the way.

Radek took another drink

It all started after the Oblivion War; Radek had just come home from fighting in the Summerset Isles., and when he got home he realized what home was; a dark, wet, moldy cave. His race had fought just as hard and bravely as every other race, yet they were forced to live in the most intolerable conditions imaginable. Radek saw the need for change, he started with his own tribe first, he got them to want _more_, because they deserved _more_. They were people just like everyone else; they _deserved_ to live under the stars, not beneath the ground, they _deserved_ to be able to walk into a town and not be chased out or hunted for sport, they _deserved_ to live. Radek went on to unite the goblins, the tribes who didn't join with him were quickly conquered, the goblins could no longer afford to be divided, they had to be united and strong to change their place in the world.

Radek made many mistakes along the way; mistakes like Burnock who could not look beyond his own hatred and had cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of goblins. Mistakes like underestimating the Empire's will to survive; mistakes that had cost lives, more lives than he cared to count. But overall, he would like to think that he did more good than bad, that he had made a difference, that he had helped his race.

Radek took another sip of his whiskey.

_Things always got worse before they got better_, he reminded himself.

-

Verockus was walking down the street toward the Tamriel Coalition Embassy when six large goblins walked out in front of him blocking his way and six walked across the street behind him.

"I'm afraid we can't allow you to warn Lord Radek, General," said one goblin

"I see," said Verockus raising an eyebrow

"We don't want to kill you, just come with us; we will keep you locked up until Lord Radek is dead,"

"Who is in charge of this soldier?" asked Verockus

"I don't know, and you couldn't possibly expect me to tell you if I did," said the goblin

"Don't put up a fight, you will be of no use to our cause if you are dead,"

Verockus laughed his naturally sinister laugh.

"Your plan has one flaw; it assumes you can kill me,"

Verockus threw off his cloak revealing a Dagger Tail strapped to his chest. A Dagger Tail was a metal whip in which every link had a sharp serrated edge. Verockus un-strapped the Dagger Tail and began twirling it above his head; Verockus shouted a spell and the Dagger Tail came alive with a blood red fire.

A goblin charged at Verockus and ran into the Dagger Tail; the goblin's stomach was cut strait through, his intestines spilling to the ground.

The goblins eyed the Dagger Tail with fear.

Verockus chuckled "What's the matter? A few seconds ago you were sure you could kill me,"

The goblins all charged at Verockus at once. Verockus twirled the Dagger Tail in a beautiful, bloody arc; blood splattered on the surrounding buildings; then there was only one goblin left.

The goblin raised his hands over his face.

"Please! Mercy!" he screamed

"Those weak enough to ask for mercy, don't deserve it," replied Verockus

He slung the Dagger Tail around the goblin's neck and pulled; the goblin's head popped off and went rolling down the street.

-

Radek narrowed his eyes.

"I am disappointed that there are people under my command stupid enough to think they can kill me,"

"What do you want to do?" asked Verockus

"Nothing, the traitor will eventually make its move, and when it does it will reveal its identity, and then I will personally kill it,"

"So you're not worried?"

"Only a fool is not worried, I will have my food and drink inspected for poison, and have my spies infiltrate their ranks,"

"I already got your cousin Riko doing that; he's ambitious if not particularly intelligent,"

"He has a good heart, just not a good brain," said Radek

"I never thought joining the Coalition would make you this unpopular," mused Verockus

"The hardest thing in the world for people to let go of is the past, but until you let go of the past you cannot touch the future."

"This is a new age, we can make it into whatever we want, we just have to _want_ to do it."

-

"Join the Coalition Defense Force! Fight for the future!"

"It's your responsibility and your duty!"

"Protect your loved ones!"

"The Empire wants to control you; join the Defense Force and put an end to their tyranny!"

These were the shouts coming from the recruiters on the day of the Coalition Tournament, thousands of people were signing up for the Defense Force, not a damn one them really knew why they were doing it, they were high on visions of glory and the excitement of the crowd around them. People were crowding the streets in front of the Arena, there were vendors everywhere selling souvenirs and food, everyone was clamoring for a seat in the stadium. Radek was making his way to the top box.

"I can't believe how many people are signing up!" said Riko

"You'd be surprised what people do in the heat of the moment Riko," commented Radek

"You really think this is where the traitor will make his or her move?" whispered Verockus to Radek.

"Yes," Radek whispered back

Radek got to the top box and looked down on the 250,000 screaming fans, the first match was about to begin, 40 Ogres against 40 Minotaurs, with 100 rabid Grizzly Bears thrown into the mix just for the hell of it. Radek walked up to the voice magnifier to announce the start of the match.

"Let the Bloodbath begin!"

The gates to the battleground opened up and a horde of angry Minotaurs, Ogres, and Bears clashed against each other, the match was really quite good.

Radek suddenly spun around and caught a dart in his hand; it was dripping a black poison on its tip, probably some sort of venom.

"I've underestimated you Riko, your not stupid, you're just suicidal," said Radek coldly

Riko dropped the blowgun he had been holding, and drew his sword, which was dripping in the same black venom, he then charged Radek. Radek calmly kicked the sword out of Riko's hand, breaking his arm in the process; Riko fell to the ground clutching his broken arm.

"Riko? You've got to be kidding me, he's borderline retarded!" said Verockus shocked

"That's what I wanted you to think you arrogant ass!" shouted Riko nursing his wounded arm

"Verockus, have them direct the orbs toward us, I want this image on the Arena's bubble screen."

Radek's face became twisted with confusion, and perhaps, a little sorrow.

"Why did you do it Riko?" asked Radek

"Because cousin, the path you have taken us on will lead us straight to slavery," growled Riko

Radek and Riko appeared on the enormous magical bubble that floated above the Arena and projected images.

"You have forced me to do this Riko, I must kill you so that the others will fall into line, I must kill a member of my own family, I will never forgive you for making me do this,"

Radek pulled out his dagger and stood Riko on his feet.

"Wait! Radek, don't do this!" said Riko, terrified

"You broke my heart cousin," said Radek sadly

Radek plunged his dagger into Riko's heart, and then as Riko was gasping his last breaths, Radek kicked him over the edge and into the mass of fighting Ogres, Minotaurs, and bears below.

Radek threw the dagger over the edge, sickened.

"You did what you had to do," said Verockus quietly

"I always do," replied Radek coldly, he then walked out of the stadium.


	16. Chapter 16: Rage

It was a bright sunny day on the lake, Mathias closed his eyes and listened to the pleasant sound of waves crashing against the rowboat he had made with his son; this was the maiden voyage of the _Waverunner _as Kyle had named her.

"Dad! I got one!"

Mathias opened his eyes and saw his 7 year old son Kyle wrestling with his fishing pole.

"She's a big one!" said Mathias

He went over to his son and helped him steady his pole.

"Give your pole a good yank," advised Mathias

Kyle yanked his pole and felt the hook latch on to the fish.

"Now pull it up muscles!" laughed Mathias

Kyle began pulling with all his strength; Mathias discreetly raised his hand and reached out with his mind, he latched on to the fish with telekinesis and secretly helped Kyle pull it up. The fish flopped into the boat and Kyle pounced on it and struggled to get a grip, which was hard as it kept wriggling out of his hands.

"Let me show you a little trick son, back up a bit," said Mathias with a wink

Kyle backed up and Mathias raised his hand and pointed it at the fish, a small blast of subzero wind hit the fish and it became frozen. Kyle picked the fish up and put it the bucket they had brought with them.

"Wish I could do that kind of stuff," said Kyle wide eyed

"You will, in fact one day you will be more powerful than I could ever hope to be," said Mathias, smiling at his son

"That's impossible! Nobody can be stronger than you Dad!" exclaimed Kyle

"Magic runs strong in our veins son, and it's gotten stronger in every generation of our family, I'm many times more powerful my father was, and the power that you will one day wield will be unlike anything the world has seen before. But as I'm sure you're tired of hearing by now, with great power comes great responsibility,"

"I know," said Kyle rolling his eyes

"You need to use your power to help people, remember son, always follow your heart, don't ever go against it, people might tell you that sometimes you need to do terrible things for the greater good, but they're wrong, there is always a better way,"

"Why are you telling me this Dad?"

The skies turned dark and cloudy, Mathias suddenly grabbed Kyle's shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Remember son, _nothing_ is what it seems,"

The sky exploded into darkness and Kyle woke gasping for air.

"Kyle, you okay!" said Tark alarmed, he had been woken up by the ruckus

Kyle steadied his breathing.

"I'm fine, go back to bed," said Kyle getting up

"You're freaking me out mate," said Tark falling back to sleep

Kyle walked to the window of the tree house and stared out over the vast rainforest before him, it was night in Elsweyr.

"Nothing is what it seems," said Kyle quietly.

-

Bergen was seated at the kitchen table of the tree house drinking a cup of tea and reading the latest Black Horse Courier titled _Tamriel Coalition Good or Bad?_ The tree house had been purchased by the Empire 20 years ago to house any Imperial dignitaries that might visit Senchal, the city of tree houses that served as capital of the Khajiit homeland. Kyle walked into the kitchen, sat down, and grabbed a piece of fruit from the basket in the middle of the table.

"Morning Commander," said Kyle, biting into the fruit

"Good Morning Captain," replied Bergen, not looking up from his paper

Kyle had been promoted to Captain after Major Rendar had disappeared; he was now second in command of the team.

"What's on the agenda today, sir?" asked Kyle

"The Mane has finally found time to meet with us around noon. I'm actually surprised that he was able to make time for us considering how much the Desert Rebels have stepped up their game,"

The Mane was the Khajiit Chief of State, he was a massive lion faced Khajiit, the pinnacle of evolution; incredibly fast, agile, strong, and smart. A Mane was born in every generation of Khajiit, nature only created one Mane at any given time, and that Mane always became the leader of the Khajiit, it was a tradition that dated back well over a thousand years.

Zaquarl and Tark walked into the kitchen.

"Milk!" exclaimed Zaquarl pointing at the 5-gallon pitcher of milk on the table

Zaquarl picked up the pitcher and started downing the whole thing; Kyle and Tark watched in amazement as the level of milk in the glass pitcher steadily dropped as Zaquarl gulped it down, when their was none left Zaquarl gave a massive belch that sounded more like a roar.

"That waz good," sighed Zaquarl licking his lips, there was a large milk mustache on his face.

"You got a mustache," said Kyle pointing

"I'm a Khajiit, my whole face iz a mustache!"

Tark chuckled

"Where's Mary?" asked Kyle

"She's sitting outside, I swear to the gods you two have the weirdest relationship I've ever seen," said Tark

"We don't _have_ a relationship in case you've forgotten, and if you don't shut up about it I'm going to pick out your greatest insecurity and shine the worlds largest spotlight on it," said Kyle coldly

"_Yes sir_,"

Kyle had gotten distant with everyone after Hammerfell, maybe it was Mary, maybe it was his promotion, all that Tark knew is that if his bad attitude kept up he was going to kick his ass, whether he was his best friend or not. Tark bumped Kyle's shoulder as he left.

Kyle walked out into the morning sunlight and listened to the thousands of birds singing in the tropical forest below, he spotted Mary sitting on the edge of the walkway, staring out over the forest. Kyle sat down next to her.

"Are we ever going to talk about it?" he asked without looking at her.

Mary kept looking out over the forest without saying anything.

"Am I missing something here? I'm pretty sure you like me too, just tell me if I'm wrong, if I am, I'll leave it alone and never bring it up again," said Kyle, turning to look at her.

She finally turned to look at him.

"You're wrong, feel better?"

"Really? The---"

"Kyle! Just leave it alone!" she shouted, she got up and left, leaving Kyle with his mouth open.

Kyle stared out over the forest for several minutes without saying anything, when he finally got up he paused before leaving, he spun around, face contorted with emotion and sent blast of lightning searing through the forest, it burned a clear path through the tree tops, causing several of to catch fire.

-

The Lobby to the Mane's office was built very artistically, the room was lit with natural light from the forest and the white walls were decorated with the designs of mountains, forests, lakes, deserts, and animals; the design was very subtle you had to look closely to see it. Kyle was staring at a piece of artwork that adorned one of the many pedestals in the lobby. It was a vicious red and black dragon fighting a beautiful blue and white dragon, the Red Dragon had bitten the Blue Dragon on the neck and the Blue Dragon had its claws around the Red Dragon's neck; the artwork struck a chord in Kyle, it felt as if he to had two great dragon's battling inside him. Kyle's power was growing at an alarming rate, accelerated by Bergen's training, he could do things now he would never have thought possible 2 months ago; it scared him to the core of his being. He could literally feel the power coursing through his veins, _begging_ to be unleashed; the power was changing him, turning him into someone he didn't recognize, and he didn't think he could stop it.

The doors to the lobby burst open and two figures strode in, a female dark elf, and a fierce looking Dremora with shaggy hair.

"Kaleena?" said Tark looking dumbfounded

"Nice to see you again," said Kaleena smiling

"You sure keep interesting company these days," said Tark staring at the Dremora.

"This is General Verockus, commander of the Special Operations Division of the Coalition Defense Force," explained Kaleena

Verockus leaned against one of the white walls and stared out the window and down into the forest below.

"Why are you here?"

"I suspect for the same reason you are," said Verockus in his strange double voice.

"I trust this doesn't need to get ugly, if you attack us within the city the Mane will have to throw you out," said Verockus calmly

"You don't need to worry about _our_ behavior," said Bergen staring at Verockus.

"Good, then I look forward to a little friendly competition," replied Verockus with a slightly sinister grin

The doors to the Mane's office opened up and several members of the Jian-Ti walked out; the Jian-Ti was ancient order of Khajiit guardians, tasked with protecting the Mane and Elsweyr.

"The Mane will see you now," said one, the rest walked out of the room

-

The Mane was a 2,500-pound, orange and black striped, lion faced Khajiit, his body was rippling with muscle, and he had a large, shaggy black mane.

"You are all here because you want me to help you kill each other," stated the Mane in his deep, powerful voice.

"Not at all we---" started Kaleena, but the Mane cut her off

"I am the _Mane_ little girl, I can see into the past, and history always repeats itself, I _know_ why you are here, do _not_ insult my intelligence with pretty words," he growled

Kaleena shut her mouth

"You are right, that is exactly why we are here, the Coalition and the Empire are incapable of coexisting, one of us has to go," stated Bergen looking into the Mane's eyes.

The Mane snorted

"Blunt honesty, a welcome change," he said in his deep voice

"I believe it is tradition for you to offer me something in return for sending soldiers to your aide, this is what I want; the death of the leader of the Desert Rebels, we to are incapable of coexisting,"

"Done," said Bergen and Verockus at the same time

"Whichever side brings me proof of his death will gain my support, now get out,"

-

"I know why my brothersss and sistersss are angry," said Zaquarl coldly

"The Mane iz _alwaysss _born to the jungle tribesss, _never_ to the desert tribesss, the jungle tribesss think they are better than usss because of thisss, just because the Mane haz the ability to sssee into the past does not make him fit to lead"

"You can't fight nature, this is simply the way things are," said Mary sympathetically

"The way thingsss are sssuck,"

"They always do," said Mary sadly

Zaquarl was getting annoyed with her gloomy attitude.

"What'sss wrong with you, you like Kyle so what'sss the problem?"

"Stay out of it," growled Mary

"You look at him like he'sss a piece of eye candy!"

"I'll slap the stripes off your fur if you don't shut up, right now," said Mary dangerously

"Humansss, you're all crazy!" exclaimed Zaquarl

-

Kyle was in the City Library reading the history of the Desert Tribes, he didn't agree with killing their leader but it had to be done, the Empire would lose the war without Elsweyr's support. He suddenly heard something that caught his attention, two Khajiit were talking behind the bookshelves.

"Everything iz in order by tomorrow night the Mane will be dead,"

"Good, there must be no complicationsss,"

Kyle got up and peaked around the corner, two white furred Khajiit were talking in hushed voices.

"I don't want to know the plansss, just make sure they go off without a hitch," said one Khajiit

"Understood," said the other

They parted and went their separate ways; Kyle followed the one with the plans.

-

Mary, Zaquarl, and Tark were in the tree house playing a game of cards, when Kyle walked in.

"I think I have a way to get the Mane on our side without killing his competition,"

"Do tell," said Tark putting down his cards, he was losing anyway

"There's a plan to assassinate the Mane, and I tracked the guy behind it to his house, we go in and force the information out of him, and then we're on the Mane's good side," 

"Let's do it,"

-

It was night in the City of Senchal when Kyle broke down the door of the assassin's home. The Khajiit was in the middle of his dinner and spat out a piece of fish.

"Who are you!" he yelped in shock

Kyle kicked the chair out from under him and grabbed the Khajiit by the collar.

"Search the house; _I'll_ deal with him,"

Kyle kicked open the door to one of the rooms and threw the Khajiit in, he shut the door behind him, the Khajiit got up to charge at Kyle, but he smashed him against the wall with telekinesis.

"Tell me about the assassination!" snapped Kyle

"I don't know what you're talking about," replied the Khajiit

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Kyle roared in a dark, deep voice, that was not his own.

The ground started shaking; the Khajiit was terrified.

"I won't tell you anything!" he shouted

"Then this is going to get really unpleasant for you,"

Kyle's hands began crackling with lightning, he put them on the Khajiit's chest and it started screaming, Kyle let up after 30 seconds.

"TELL ME!" He roared in the same strange voice

The Khajiit was shivering.

"No," he whispered

Kyle put his hand on the Khajiit's head and broke into its mind; a rush of memories confronted him, he began sifting through them, the Khajiit screaming the whole time. Kyle finally found what he wanted.

The door burst open and the rest of the team ran in.

"Kyle!" shouted Tark, horrified

Kyle released the Khajiit

"I know who's going to assassinate the Mane, and I know where he's going to do it," said Kyle the sinister dark voice.

"So do we, we found these in his desk!" Tark angrily threw a pack of papers down next to the whimpering Khajiit.

Kyle blinked rapidly and shook his head; he looked up, and saw the horrified looks on his friend's faces, then looked down, and saw the whimpering Khajiit; he promptly fell to his knees and vomited.

Kyle staggered past his friends and went into the hall; he was dizzy and sick. Kyle slid down against the wall and covered his face with his hands, he started shaking, tears were streaming down his face, _what's wrong with me?_

Someone slid down next to him

Kyle looked up and saw Mary sitting next to him.

"I don't know what's happening to me," he said quietly

She put an arm around his shoulder.

-

Later that night the Jian-Ti rounded up everyone involved in the assassination plot and threw them in jail, they thoroughly thanked the group, as they would not have been able to catch the traitors without their help. The Mane said he would remember this, but that his original demand still stood, if they wanted his help, they had to kill the leader of the Desert Rebels.


	17. Chapter 17: Fathers & Sons

_The 12-year-old Dremora fell to the ground clutching his broken arm, a much older Dremora stood over him holding a staff._

"_Get up Verockus!" he snapped_

_Verockus struggled to his feet and the older dremora swept his legs out from under him with his staff._

"_MOVE FASTER!" roared the dremora_

"_I'm tired," panted Verockus_

"Tired?_" said the dremora incredulously_

_The Dremora brought his staff crashing down on Verockus's back, and followed up with a kick to the ribs._

"_Warriors don't get tired!" roared the dremora_

_The dremora kicked Verockus again._

"_Warriors don't feel pain!" shouted the dremora, pushing Verockus to the ground._

"_Warriors _never_ show weakness!" _

_The dremora brought his staff down on Verockus, but this time he caught it in his one good arm and pulled himself up. Verockus drew on magic, summoned his sword again, and swung it at the dremora's head in anger. The dremora blocked the blow with his staff. The dremora then brought the staff crashing down on Verockus's head; Verockus fell to the ground semi conscious._

"_You still have a lot to learn my son," said the dremora, picking Verockus up_

-

Present Day

Verockus stared out over the treetops breathing in the morning air. Verockus had a feeling that today was going to be a bad day; of course, they usually were. Kaleena walked up behind him.

"I've secured transportation to Dune from the Senchal Mages Guild, it's going to cost the Coalition 10,000 drakes though," said Kaleena.

Verockus shook his head.

"You really need to learn something about the fine art of _negotiation_ Captain," said Verockus in his strange double voice.

"The Mages Guild has a monopoly on magical transportation in Tamriel, they can charge whatever they want," said Kaleena coldly.

"Tell the Mages Guild to cut their transportation fee in half, or the Coalition will give all of its magical contracts to House Telvanni," said Verockus patiently.

"We can't afford to do that! House Telvanni doesn't have half the resources the Guild has!"

"It's called a _bluff_ Captain; say that Morrowind is pressuring us to give the Great Houses more contracts; they'll cave. And you would do well to watch your tone when you speak to me _Captain_."

"Don't use fear tactics on me Verockus, they're insulting to my intelligence."

Verockus calmly turned around and looked Kaleena directly in the eyes.

"Perhaps you have a mistaken impression about me Captain, I don't make threats, I make promises; so believe me when I say that if you ever talk to me like that again, I _will_ kill you, whether you work for Talaris or not; and it's _General_ Verockus."

Kaleena and Verockus stared at each other for several seconds.

"I'll keep that in mind General; just remember one thing; it would be a mistake to underestimate me, people have died for less."

Verockus gave an approving smile.

"Indeed, you are dismissed Captain."

-

"You want to learn how to _block_ your power?" asked Bergen incredulously

"Yes, I'm not going to let it hurt anyone else." Said Kyle firmly

Bergen ran his hands through his close-cropped hair.

"The reason that you're becoming violent is because you are actively trying to deny your power; it's causing a split in your _soul_, your soul is no longer in _balance_, it's divided between light and dark, and each force is battling for _control_. If you embraced your strength, your _destiny_, this would not be happening."

"But it _is_ happening, and I need to stop it before I kill someone."

Bergen snorted "_Destiny_ isn't something you can turn your back on _boy_, it will catch up to you no matter how fast you run from it."

Kyle glared at him; he didn't understand; he didn't know how dangerous he was.

"Can you _help_ me or _not_?"

Bergen returned the glare, this kid had more potential than anyone he had ever met, and he wanted to deny it, fine he would learn the hard way, _no one_ can escape fate.

"You want to suppress your powers? The process is simple, it's like blocking out a bad memory…….."

-

_Mehrunes Dagon looked out over the army of Dremora before him, he was gigantic, a red skinned 20 foot tall, four armed, horned beast. He commanded fear and respect._

"_**Today we honor my most loyal servant!**" he boomed in his massive voice_

"_**He who's strength and courage has **_**never_ wavered, who has brought us all much glory!"_**

"_**Lord Tanack!"**_

_A Dremora stepped forward and bowed before Dagon, Dagon put one of his massive hands on Tanack's head._

"_**You have proven your worth time and again Tanack. Today I reward your loyalty; you are now the commander of all my armies."**_

"_**Rise Supreme-General."**_

_The crowd of Dremora raised their weapons in the air and roared their approval._

_A group of adolescent Dremora were clapping at the back of the crowd; the largest one turned to his left and sneered at the smallest Dremora in the group._

"_I can't _believe_ a great warrior like Supreme-General Tanack could produce such a worthless son; if I were your father Verockus, I would have killed you _years_ ago," sneered the Dremora with a mocking grin._

_Verockus had jumped on the Dremora's back before he had even finished his sentence, he got his arms around the Dremora's neck and did his best to try to strangle him._

_The Dremora's friends grabbed Verockus and tried to yank him off their companion who was gasping for air, they finally succeeded and they wrestled Verockus to the ground. The Dremora who he had been trying to strangle rubbed his neck and got to his feet, he glared down at Verockus._

"_Give me a dagger, I'm going to end this little coward right here," he said contemptuously. _

"_You're the coward Jaraxes! I'm half your size and you still need all your friends behind you to fight me! You know nothing of honor! You're Shunta!"_

_Jaraxes turned white with rage._

"_Shunta am I?" he said dangerously_

"_Let him go, we're going to do this properly."_

_Jaraxes companions let Verockus go and formed a circle around them. Verockus didn't give Jaraxes time to think, he charged him before the circle was fully formed. Jaraxes caught Verockus with a back kick to the chest, knocking him to the ground, even if he was a thug Jaraxes was still an excellent warrior. Verockus flipped back on to his feet the millisecond his back touched the ground, he couldn't afford to waste time, Jaraxes was a lot stronger than he was. Verockus charged him again, but at the last moment he did a power slide between Jaraxes legs, he then spun around and punched Jaraxes in the small of his back._

"_RAAARGH!" he roared in agony_

_Verockus punched him four more times in quick succession before Jaraxes turned around. Jaraxes hit Verockus in the face full on, sending him flying. Again, Verockus flipped back on to his feet the second he made contact with the ground, he tackled Jaraxes while he was still clutching his back. Jaraxes fell to the ground with Verockus on top of him, Verockus began rapidly punching Jaraxes in the face, Jaraxes didn't move to stop him, blood was splattering across Verockus's face as he continued punching. He kept on punching until his fist connected with soft squishy material; Verockus had punched right through Jaraxes head, and he still didn't stop._

_The crowd was screaming, "BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!"_

_Verockus kept right on punching._

_-_

Dune was the oldest city on Tamriel, the birthplace of the Khajiit race. It was composed of white stone buildings designed to keep out the desert heat. A massive palace dominated the center of the city, it was _ancient_; it had been many things over the centuries, a royal palace, a fortress, an arena, and finally a bazaar; the largest bazaar on Tamriel. That was where Verockus and Kaleena were heading; someone there was bound to know the location of the Desert Rebels leader.

Kaleena breathed in the air; it was perfumed with the smell of thousands of different meats and vegetables cooking out in the open. She walked up to one of the food venders.

"I'll take two strawberry-star fruit smoothies."

"You got it," said the khajiit vender, who began chopping up the fruit.

"I'm looking for a friend," said Kaleena in a low voice, sliding the vender 250 Coalition Credits.

"How may I be of ssservice?" smiled the vender, pocketing the credits.

"Where do the Desert Rebels meet?"

The vender leaned close to Kaleena.

"I hear that below the Bazaar there iz the ruins of an ancient city, they sssay the city waz once part of a civilization older than the godsss themselvesss."

The vender went back to chopping the fruit.

"But that's just what they sssay."

The vender scooped the fruit into two desert turtle shells and handed them to Kaleena and Verockus.

"You've been a great help," said Kaleena turning to leave with Verockus.

The vender shouted back at them.

"A word to the wize my friend, you should never fight your enemy in their own home."

"I'll keep that in mind."

-

The team was standing in front of a large elegant white building.

"So who's this friend we're about to meet?" asked Tark.

"He's an old acquaintance of mine, and he owes me a rather large favor."

"Bergen!" shouted the large man holding out his arms. The man stood about seven foot tall and looked like he could wrestle a bear to the ground and make it cry uncle.

The man through an arm around Bergen's shoulder and ruffled his hair with his other hand.

"Where ya been hiding ya old bastard!"

"It's good to see you to Bart," said Bergen trying to break the man's headlock.

The man let Bergen go and nodded to the rest of the group.

"Who's the entourage?"

"Imperial Special Forces," said Bergen

The man shook his head.

"Ya just can't leave the spy game behind can ya?"

Bergen shrugged.

"We are we are."

Bart nodded his head solemnly.

"Aye."

There was a short pause before anyone spoke again.

"So whatcha be needin from this humble arms dealer? I hardly think you're shoppin for a new sword"

"I'm calling in the favor," said Bergen resolutely.

Bart gave a long sigh.

"I'm sure I'm going to love this!" he said sarcastically.

"I want you to set up a meeting with the leader of the Desert Rebels, I know you've been supplying at least a third of their weapons."

Bart threw his arms into the air.

"So you can slide a knife between his ribs? Yeah! I know about the deal with the Mane. Do you have any idea how much money the Desert Rebels bring in? 3 million drakes a month!"

"You owe me," said Bergen calmly

"Why the hell couldn't ya have just died during the Oblivion War?"

Bergen didn't say anything; he just waited for Bart to calm down. After a while Bart spoke cheerfully again.

"Well it's gonna happen whether I like it or not, might as well get rid of my debt to you now rather than later."

"It just so happens I'm going to be meeting him later this afternoon, you up for a little sojourn underground?"

-

_Tanack smacked Verockus hard enough to send him flying across the open field._

"_I defended the family honor!" shouted Verockus getting to his feet._

"_No, what you did was destroy one of Lord Dagon's valuable assets," said Tanack menacingly._

_A crowd began gathering around Tanack and Verockus, but they were careful to keep their distance._

"_If you wanted to defend our honor, you would have taught Jaraxes a lesson rather than kill him. Humiliation is much more powerful teacher than death as you will soon find out."_

_A Dremora ran up to Tanack with a long stone box, Tanack opened it and pulled out a long dark metal chain, each link of the chain was a serrated blade._

"_This is a Dagger Tail, it is an ancient weapon, and there are few who can use it."_

_Tanack pointed his hand toward Verockus and Verockus flew through the air, slamming into a massive stone pole 50 feet above the ground. Tanack muttered a spell and the Dagger Tail swam through the air like an eel and wrapped itself tightly around Verockus, cutting into his flesh._

"_I'll be back in a week; if you're still alive then I'll let you down."_

_With that, Tanack turned and left._

-

Verockus took a drink from his turtle shell, and gave a reluctant smile.

"Told you would like it," said Kaleena grinning.

"It's not bad," said Verockus taking another sip.

"Get back here worm!"

The little boy ran past Verockus and tripped over a rock, a fat greasy man was close behind, he grabbed the boy by the back of his shirt and slammed him against the wall.

"You think you can steal from me? ME!" shouted the man.

"I was hungry," said the boy scared 

The man pulled back his fist preparing to strike the boy; Verockus acting on instinct grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind him.

"Arrrrgh!" growled the man in pain.

"I'm curious, what gives you the right to beat a child?" asked Verockus calmly

"He stole ---"

Verockus pulled on the man's arm causing him yell in agony.

"Wrong answer, you know, if I pushed your arm just a little farther I could break it in half."

The man closed his eyes in fear

"What did he steal?"

"…..An apple."

"My, my, my; that _is_ quite the crime."

Verockus let go of the man and kicked him to the ground.

"Get out of here, and next time solve your problems with _words_."

The man took off at a full run and Verockus turned to the boy.

"Pay for your meal next time," said Verockus throwing the boy a small pouch of coins.

Verockus turned and found Kaleena staring at him.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, walking ahead of him.

-

Bergen bent down and gently touched the writing on the stone pillar. They were in a large underground cavern lit by glowing blue and green crystals growing on the walls, they were staring out over the crumbling ruins of what must have been a great city. The ruins were composed of a dark blue stone, that was cold and glassy smooth to the touch, Bergen seemed to be treating the ruins with great respect.

"Who built these ruins?" asked Kyle

"The Solari," said Bergen standing up straight.

Bart burst out laughing.

"Don't tell me ya believe in that ridiculous myth!"

"These were probably made by some Ayleid splinter group."

"Maybe, except that the Khajiit built Dune on top of this place over 10,000 years before the Ayleids showed up on Tamriel."

"Alright, so they're not Ayleid, but Bergen seriously, _the Solari?_"

Kyle was confused.

"Who are the Solari?"

Bart shook his head chuckling.

"A few groups of crackpots, apparently including Bergen here, believe that over a million years ago all the continents were a single land mass inhabited by one race, the Solari. The legend goes that the Solari were destroyed and all the land in the world was ripped apart by some cataclysmic event. Nowadays whenever somebody finds some ruins that can't be tied to any known race, or some strange artifact, they assume that it's a relic of the Solari."

"I've never heard of that legend before," said Tark.

"_That's_ cuz every single respectable scholar knows that it's a bunch of horseshit," said Bart.

"Now that the history lecture is over, can we continue?" asked Bergen, slightly impatient.

"By all means," said Bart.

-

The 23-year-old Dremora waited in the antechamber dressed in a Dagon Army uniform with insignia of a lieutenant on his shoulder sleeve. Lord Tanack entered the room with his hands folded behind his back; the Lieutenant knelt before him.

"Father, I'm now an officer in Lord Dagon's army," said Verockus

Tanack snorted.

"You graduated 12th in your class, you _should_ have been first."

Verockus couldn't believe his ears.

"I graduated 10 years ahead of schedule! None can claim that!"

"Do you expect me to be impressed because you did your duty?" glared Tanack

"ENOUGH!" Verockus jumped to his feet.

"I came here for your approval, I can see clearly now that this is something I will never get, all my life I have been trying to earn your respect, NO MORE!"

"Watch your mouth lieutenant," said Tanack dangerously.

Verockus composed himself with dignity.

"I _know_ who I am, and I'm proud of who I am, even if you're not."

"Goodbye father, you won't be seeing me again."

Verockus saluted Tanack and turned on one heel, leaving his father standing in the antechamber.

-

"Son of a _Bitch_," muttered Verockus.

Verockus and Kaleena were watching from the shadows as the Imperial Special Forces team entered the ruins and were met by an advanced guard, they were the escorted inside one of the remaining buildings.

Kaleena sighed, "Let's get inside and try to beat them to it."

-

Kyle looked around the inside of the building; the walls were covered with cave vine, a leafy vine that only grew in caves. The building was very busy hundreds of people were rushing in and out, going about their busy; it seemed that the Desert Rebels were very organized. Their guards were covered from head to toe in white robes so that you couldn't see their faces, two more guards took up positions behind them; Kyle was getting a bad feeling.

"So where are we going?" asked Mary.

"The Dome," said Bart.

"What iz that?" asked Zaquarl

"It's a dome," said Bart giving Zaquarl a strange look

"Ooooh"

They came to a stop in front of two huge double doors, one of the guards pointed at the doors and they split open. The team walked into a gigantic round room with a domed ceiling, the walls were completely lined with guards. Every muscle in Kyle's body was screaming TRAP! Kyle pulled out his sword and the rest of the group followed suit.

"I must say Bart, I'm somewhat disappointed," said Bergen.

"The situation is infinitely more complicated than ya realize," said Bart moving away from Bergen.

"I couldn't have helped ya even if I wanted to."

"This is going to be interesting," said Tark eyeing the guards.

The doors on opposite side of the room burst open and a massive figure strode through and everyone's jaw dropped.

"Oh…my…Godsss" said Zaquarl.

-

"_It's our job to capture Shogun when the gate opens, if we have him we may be able to force a surrender from Hammerfell," said Verockus addressing his troops._

"_This is what we know of the Bastion's floor plans," said Verockus passing out maps._

"_We will enter ---"_

"_Colonel Verockus!"_

_Verockus turned around and addressed the newcomer._

"_You better have a damn good reason for interrupting my briefing."_

"_Supreme-General Tanack wishes an audience with you."_

"_Well as you can see I'm more than a little busy right now, the mission begins in 4 hours."_

"_Supreme-General Tanack has put Colonel Zorrick in charge of the mission."_

_Verockus closed his eyes and breathed deeply then opened them._

"_Who am I to ignore the last wishes of a dieing man?"_

_Tanack was lying in his bed breathing heavily, he had fallen victim to a rare form of cancer and didn't have much time left on this plane, even for Daedra there was still an afterlife. A figure stood at his doorway._

"_Come in Verockus," he coughed._

"_Reporting as ordered Supreme-General," said Verockus stiffly._

"_Sit down."_

_Verockus sat down on the chair next to Tanack's bed._

"_You were wrong," said Tanack._

"_What else is new?" muttered Verockus._

"_What you said before you left all those years ago, that I'm not proud of who you are, you were wrong……I'm very proud of you." said Tanack softly_

_Verockus looked at his father as if he had never seen him before._

"_You're a much better man than I am."_

_Verockus looked down at his father, he tried to speak but the words escaped him._

"_You have a rare gift among Daedra, you have a heart, remember to always keep it safe, keep it hidden, don't let anyone take it from you."_

"_Fath---"_

"_Shut up and let me talk, I don't have much time left."_

_Tanack paused to catch his breath._

"_I know I wasn't a good father, hell, I was a horrible father. But I don't want you to doubt for one second, that I didn't love you."_

"_That's all I had to say," said Tanack uncomfortably._

_Verockus put a hand on his father's shoulder._

"_Take care son," said Tanack, he then closed his eyes._

-

"Holy Crap," muttered Kaleena

She and Verockus had put on the uniforms of Desert Rebel guards and had walked in with the group. Standing before them was gigantic white and black striped khajiit with a shaggy white mane, there was no doubt about it, they were staring at _another_ Mane.

"Oh this going to be _real_ good." said Verockus.


	18. Chapter 18: Hunted

"I've finally done it,"

A black robed khajiit was staring into a massive dark cage with adamantium bars. He was inside a dark cavern, all around him were strange mechanical instruments and beakers full of glowing bubbling liquids.

"Come forward," said the black robed Khajiit.

The cage emitted a faint growl and a large figure crept forward its massive clawed hands grabbing hold of the bars, its eyes a violent blood red, its face bathed in shadows.

The Khajiit began cackling madly.

"Muahahahaha!"

"It'z time for you to make your big debut!"

"Ubar iz waiting for you."

-

No one said anything they just stood there staring dumbstruck at the White Mane. He was about 2,400 pounds, slightly smaller than the other, Black Mane, but his muscles were more defined, and he had white and black stripes instead of orange and black.

"I get this reaction a lot," said the White Mane cheerfully, his voice was very deep.

"This is impossible," said Bergen flatly.

"Isn't it though?" said the White Mane grinning, showing rows of razor sharp teeth.

"Nature creates only one Mane at any given time."

The White Mane leaned forward "I don't think anyone really knows what the hell nature does or doesn't do," he said in a stage whisper.

"Does the other Mane know about you?" asked Kyle, shocked.

"Why do you think he sent you here to kill me?" said the White Mane with a knowing smile.

"Relax; you couldn't assassinate me anyway, I can see the future, so far every assassination the Black Mane has attempted has failed miserably."

"The Mane sees the past, not the future,"

"Not me, truth be told I failed history," said the White Mane with a shrug.

"Why not just reveal yourself? How the hell could you keep your identity a secret in first place?" said Mary

"Not hard, I've been doing it for 35 years, and the answer to your first question, it's because I'm not ready yet."

"The people would rally behind you!" said Zaquarl, staring at the White Mane

"And then we would have a full blown civil war on our hands, both the Black Mane and myself have been trying to settle this matter quietly to avoid just that."

"Gods the two of you are stupid!" shouted Mary.

The White Mane raised an eyebrow.

"If the two of you weren't so damn self absorbed you'd realize you should be working together not trying to kill each other!"

The White Mane chuckled.

"My sentiments exactly, but when I revealed myself to the Black Mane with that very purpose in mind, he tried to kill me, so I tried to kill him right back."

"You can put your weapons away by the way; I'm not going to kill you, unless you try to kill _me_ of course."

The team slowly put away their weapons.

"I have a proposition for you," said the White Mane, slowly circling the group.

"Let me guess, you want us to kill the Black Mane," said Kyle sarcastically.

"No, I'll deal with that in my own way and on my own time. What I want is Imperial support, which you can guarantee; in exchange I will send 200,000 troops to aid you in the coming war, after I have taken control of Elsweyr that is."

"500,000" said Bergen

"This isn't a negotiation Commander, take it or leave it."

Bergen shrugged; it was worth a shot.

"Fine, but as you know we can't send troops to help you, we have our own problems to deal with."

"I don't need you to, but once the war with the Coalition is over I _will_ be looking to collect."

Bergen narrowed his eyes "Collect on what?"

"We'll get to that later."

A Khajiit came running into the room and came to a stop before the Mane.

"We have a problem, something has happened at Ubar."

"He teleported in from Ubar 15 minutes ago,"

Two Khajiit were desperately trying to restrain another. The Khajiit's robes were torn and bloody, there was a massive gash in its right leg, and blood was slowly dripping from its ears.

The White Mane raised his arm and pointed it at the Khajiit, who slowly began to relax.

"What happened?" asked the White Mane after the wounded Khajiit relaxed.

"Demon!" said the Khajiit in a frantic whisper.

The White Mane gave a sigh, "We're not going to get anything coherent out of him for a while. Sedate him and tend to his wounds."

"Should we dispatch some troops to Ubar?" asked a Khajiit guard.

The White Mane was thoughtful for a few seconds.

"Maybe this would be a good time for our new friends to prove themselves, what do you think Commander?" said the Whit Mane, turning to Bergen.

Bergen turned to Kyle.

"Teleport in to Ubar, take someone with you."

Kyle nodded.

"Mary you're with me."

Kyle and Mary stepped on the teleporter, and then they were off.

-

Smoke burned at Kyle's eyes, Kyle coughed and looked around the room, the Ubar Mages Guild was on fire.

"Let's get out of here!" said Kyle coughing

Mary kicked the entrance doors open and they stepped out into the cold desert night where they were confronted by a horrific site, several buildings were on fire and bodies littered the streets. The bodies were mutilated in such a way that they were barely recognizable. Kyle put out the surrounding fires with a blast of subzero wind, then bent down to examine the bodies.

"What could have done this?"

"Not any animal I know of," said Mary

"RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

Kyle and Mary both clutched their ears.

"What the frack was that!"

Mary unstrapped her double-ended sword from her back.

"Let's go find out."

-

"So what do we do now?" said Kaleena.

Kaleena and Verockus were standing outside in the ruins, they had slipped out of the Dome after the Khajiit messenger came rushing in.

"We come up with a new plan; if that oversized cat is telling the truth then assassination won't work, but I doubt he can see everything coming, he was pretty surprised when that messenger showed up, so that means he can't control what he sees yet. My guess is that right now his visions are little more than a defense mechanism."

"So how do we take him out?"

Verockus shrugged.

"Only one way, we have to kill him in a fair fight, that's the only way he won't see it coming."

"Let's get back to Senchal; we're going to need the Black Mane's help on this one."

-

Bart and Bergen were standing in a hallway outside the Dome.

"Well now that I introduced ya to ya new friend I'll be on my way," said Bart

Bergen smiled and gave Bart a friendly pat on the shoulder.

Then he grabbed him and shoved him against the wall, Bergen took out a dagger and pressed it against Bart's neck.

"Listen to me you son of a bitch, you _ever_ betray me again I will disconnect your head from your neck," he snarled.

"Take it easy! I wasn't gonna let anything happen to ya!" said Bart raising his hands.

Bergen pressed the dagger into Bart's neck, drawing blood.

"Bullshit, I see it in your eyes; you were surprised when the White Mane offered us a deal."

"You expected him to kill me and my team on the spot, didn't you?"

Bart said nothing and Bergen applied more pressure to the dagger.

"_Didn't you?"_

"Aye," said Bart

Bergen glared at Bart.

"_I saved you life,"_ he growled

Bart smiled grimly.

"It's like ya said, 'we are who we are'"

Bergen put the dagger back on his belt.

"How right you are," he said

Bergen started to leave, then whipped around and punched Bart hard in stomach. Bart slid down the wall groaning and Bergen walked out of the hall.

-

Mary and Kyle walked steadily down the street in the direction of the ungodly roar.

"We never did finish that conversation 2 days ago, did we?" said Kyle

"Are you _kidding_ me? You want to talk about this _now?_" said Mary looking at Kyle as if he was crazy.

"Sure, why not?" said Kyle grinning

"You can go from hot to cold in the blink of an eye, can't you?" said Mary shaking her head.

"You must be rubbing off on me," said Kyle.

"Not such a good thing, when you can topple trees with a sneeze," she responded dryly.

"I'm blocking those kind of powers, that kind of thing _won't_ be happening again," said Kyle seriously

"And I'm not going to let you change the topic."

Mary stopped quite suddenly and slammed one end of her sword staff into the ground.

"Kyle! Relationships are a bad idea! Because you see there's only one universal truth to them, you know what _that_ is!?"

Kyle thought it best not to say anything.

"Someone _always_ gets hurt!

"Don't you think you're being a bit extreme?"

"NO!" she shrieked

"There's one thing I've learned, and it applies to both battle _and_ love: Don't _ever_ let someone get close enough to hurt you."

Kyle shook his head "Well I think that is just a tremendous philosophy Mary, that way you can go through your entire life without ever really knowing anyone at all."

Mary opened and shut her mouth, "You…You talk too much!"

"RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

Mary pulled her staff out of the ground and she and Kyle took off in the direction of the roar. They rounded the corner and ran headlong into panicked Khajiit.

"For the love of the godz, help me!" he shouted

A horrible beast suddenly appeared 100 feet down the street; it was eight foot tall, its eyes a glowing blood red, its head shaped roughly like a mountain lion. It had massive strong arms and hands with 8-inch long claws and mouth full of gleaming white teeth. It took one look at Kyle, Mary, and the Khajiit and charged.

-

Bergen found the White Mane outside staring at the remains of what might have been a statue; Bergen approached him from behind.

"The legend says that the Solari were the greatest civilization to ever walk the world. They had technology thousands of years more advanced than the Dwemer, an understanding of magic a thousand times deeper than the Ayleids," said the White Mane without turning around.

"So I suppose my question is what could have destroyed a race so powerful and advanced?" said the White Mane

"The same way every great civilization is destroyed; they destroyed themselves," said Bergen.

The White Mane nodded thoughtfully.

"So you think that the Empire has destroyed itself?"

"The Empire is not dead," replied Bergen calmly.

"The Empire has no hope of defeating the Coalition, you and I both know this," said the White Mane.

Bergen raised an eyebrow, "If that's true, then why have you sided with us?"

"I have my reasons; we _all_ have our reasons,"

Bergen and the White Mane stared at the remains of the dead civilization is silence.

-

Mary switched on the flamethrower she had taken off the centurion on Stros M'kai and blasted the monster with stream of fire hotter than the surface of the sun. The creature roared in agony, it took one hate filled look at Mary, Kyle, and the Khajiit, and then jumped 20 feet into the air and onto the roof of one of the buildings where it disappeared.

"What the hell was that?" said Mary

"Hell if I know," said Kyle wide eyed.

"It'z a demon!" said the Khajiit

Kyle looked at the Khajiit, it had khaki colored fur and it was cut and bleeding.

"Let me take care of that for you," said Kyle.

Kyle waved his hands over the Khajiit's wounds and they healed up.

"Thank you my friend!" said the Khajiit

"Where do you think that damn thing got to?"

"He's probably somewhere licking his wounds; you got him pretty good with the flamethrower."

"Let's get moving then."

"Pleaze, take me with you, I don't want to be alone when the demon returnz," said the Khajiit.

"Sure, just don't hold us up."

-

The black robed Khajiit had watched the encounter from his crystal ball.

"Finally! A _real_ challenge for my creation!"

The black robed Khajiit wanted to be there when his creation tore the warriors limb from limb. He grabbed his crystal ball and walked to the far end of the cave where he had built a teleporter, he got on and was teleported to the roof of Ubar's tallest building, he sat down in the gazebo that had been built on top of the roof and monitored the Warriors progress with his crystal ball.

-

"Kyle I'm done taking about it!" shouted Mary

"That's cool, mind if I go on a little while longer?" grinned Kyle

Mary threw her hands into the air and screamed.

"If you don't like him then why do you keep ssstaring at him like he'z delicious sssteak you want to sssink your teeth into," said Zariige, the Khajiit they had rescued, licking his chops.

"You wouldn't happen to have a sssteak on you would you? I'm getting hungry."

"OH MY GODS!" shrieked Mary.

"Zariige, I wrote the guest list for this conversation, and in case you were wondering, YOUR'RE NOT ON IT!!!!!!" roared Mary.

"You know now that I think about it, you _have_ been doing an inordinate amount of staring in my direction," said Kyle, roaring with laughter

"Don't flatter yourself! And don't think I haven't noticed you checking out my ass whenever you think I'm not looking either!"

Zariige decided to chip in to the conversation, despite not being on the guest list.

"I've never really understood the human obsession with buttsss and breastsss, what's all the fuss about? Khajiit are _much_ more sensible we are attracted to nice coatz and ssshiny teeth," said Zariige cheerfully.

Kyle and Mary stared at Zariige for several long seconds.

Finally Kyle said, "Zariige, if you're looking for your business, none of it is over here."

"And I have _not_ been staring at your ass!"

"Suuuuuuure, just like your not staring at my breasts right now, my eyes are up here big guy!" shouted Mary, waving her hands.

Kyle shook his head, "I wasn't staring!"

"Ooooooh! You were just glancing then _right!_"

Kyle threw his hands into the air.

"FINE! You caught me! I think you're attractive! I guess the secret's out!"

"If you were trying to keep it a secret you were doing a very poor job of it," said Zariige.

"It's called sarcasm Zariige!"

"Yeah and I'm sure a relationship based purely on physical attraction is _bound_ to succeed! I _cannot_ tell you how many happy couples I know who got started _exactly_ the same way!"

"Really? Because I don't know of many myself," said Zariige.

"Sarcasm Zariige!" screamed Mary.

"_You think I like you for you just for you looks?"_ asked Kyle incredulously

Mary opened her arms wide, "You tell me!"

"You're beautiful, but that's not why I like you. You're the funniest, smartest, most passionate woman I've ever met!"

Kyle shook his head, "For gods' sake! I'm in love with you!" he shouted, throwing his hands into the air.

-

"Oh just tell him how you feel already!" shouted the black robed Khajiit, shaking his crystal ball.

He had been watching the two warriors argue, and found it to be very entertaining. A dark figure suddenly appeared on the edge of the crystal ball.

"Oh, right," said the Khajiit, remembering why he had been watching the warriors in the first place.

The Khajiit zoomed in on his creation, and prepared for the bloodbath to come.

-

"Oh thisss well certainly rattle the cagez of those arrogant Jungle Tribe bastards!" exclaimed Zaquarl gleefully

"For centuriez they've thought they were better than usss! Just becauze the Mane iz alwayz born to them, well who's better now!"

"I'm glad to have been of service," said the White Mane, smirking slightly.

Zaquarl had been following him around for the past hour, repeating the same thing.

"_Their_ Mane can sssee the past! Big fracking deal! So can I, just give me a history book. _Our_ Mane can sssee the future!"

Zaquarl paused in mid rant.

"How doez that work exactly?"

The White Mane was grateful for a change in topic.

"It's like dreaming, you can't control what you see, and most of the time it's pretty vague, but when I do see something that's solid, I generally pay attention to it," explained the White Mane.

"Oh I sssee……that makez absolutely no sssense whatsoever."

Zaquarl continued on his rant, and the White Mane tried very hard not to laugh.

-

"Um…uhhh…what even makes you think I feel the same way?" said Mary, regaining her composure.

"Call it a hunch," said Kyle sarcastically.

A massive dark figure cam flying through the air at Kyle, Mary, and Zariige. Kyle reacted automatically he sent a blast of lightning hurling into the creatures chest, then pulled out his sword and slashed the monster across the chest.

"RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

Kyle and Mary clutched their ears; while Zariige's super sensitive Khajiit ears began to bleed.

Mary slammed one end of her sword staff into the creatures back, and Kyle slashed its throat before it could roar again. That's when the unexpected happened, the creature's wounds healed right before their eyes.

"Oh come _on!_"

Mary shoved the nozzle of her wrist flamethrower down the monster's throat and ignited it; the stream of came bursting out the back of its head and the creature fell to the ground with a _thump_.

"Try recovering from that, you ugly son of a bitch!" shouted Mary, kicking the monster's corpse.

The air exploded with noise.

"RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

"RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

"RAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!!!!!!"

Kyle exchanged a look with Mary.

"Well _that's_ not good."

-

The Khajiit violently slammed against the cage, all his wounds miraculously healed.

"He started acting up 5 minutes ago!" said a panicked guard.

The White Mane reached out with his mind to touch the Khajiit's mind; what he found was rage, and a desire to kill.

The Khajiit fell to the ground jerking violently, his bones jutting out in odd angles, until he transformed into a gigantic snarling monster. He promptly broke free of his cage and attacked the White Mane; The White Mane caught him with one arm and held him by the neck at a distance. The monster was snarling, trying to break free of the Mane's iron clad grip, the Mane shook his head sadly and jerked his hand, breaking the monsters neck.

"Thisss iz bad," said a guard, stating the obvious.

-

Kyle and Mary had counted 16 separate roars so far.

"Let's get out of here, the White Mane can send in an army, because as of right fracking now this is no longer our problem," said Mary.

"I second that motion, come on Zariige,"

Kyle heard a snarl behind him, he turned around and found Zariige flailing around on the ground, his body seemed to be covered with bulging growths underneath his fur, he snarled and clawed at Kyle who jumped back.

Kyle and Mary exchanged grim looks.

"I'm sorry my friend," said Kyle, taking out his sword.

"I will see you in another life."

Kyle swung the sword at Zariige's neck, removing his head; he then burned his body to ashes with magic so that the monsters would not get to it.

"Let's go."

-

The black robed Khajiit watched through his crystal ball as more of his creations came into being, there were 72 in total, enough for his own private army, the creatures were actually quite smart, that was the beauty of his work, unlike lycanthropy it didn't diminish intelligence; it enhanced it. It was now time to introduce himself to the two warriors, the black robed Khajiit got to his feet and jumped off the roof of the building, landing gracefully on his feet.

-

Kyle and Mary ran into an intersection, and found it blocked in all directions by snarling monsters, surprisingly though they did not attack. A black robed Khajiit walked across the street clapping.

"I've been watching you two, you've got some good moves," said the Khajiit.

Kyle eyed the monsters behind him warily.

"Magnificent aren't they? Incredibly strong, fast, agile, and cunning, and they heal almost instantaneously; the perfect soldier wouldn't you agree?"

"_You _did this!?" roared Kyle

"It wasn't easy I assure you, it took _years_ of research and countless dead experiments before I finally perfected the process, I don't know what the effects of the transformation will be on humans however; perhaps you can help with that."

"You come anywhere near us and I will neuter you, are we clear?"

The black robed Khajiit gestured to the monsters and they surged forward, Kyle slammed his sword into the ground and created a force shield around him and Mary, the monsters crashed against it. Kyle's strength began to fail, the force shield would eventually drop and when that happened, the monsters would kill him and Mary……_Mary_.

"**NOOOOO!!!"**

Kyle's eyes glowed a violent red, his face contorted with rage and emotion. Kyle's force shield turned into fiery bubble.

"**ARRRRGH!" **

The fire intensified and exploded outward, it burned through the monsters and the Khajiit, turning their bones into ash, and charged through the city destroying buildings, melting rocks, and turning sand into glass, until finally all that was left of Ubar was a glowing glass crater.

Kyle collapsed to the ground and the fiery shield around him and Mary dropped.

"Kyle!"

Mary knelt down over Kyle; he wasn't breathing. Mary put her hands over his heart and pumped then put her mouth to his and breathed for him, she kept at it for what seemed like an eternity.

"GODS DAMNIT!" she roared beating his chest, her face felt wet for some reason.

"Breathe…please breathe," she whispered.

Kyle's eyes suddenly opened and he started coughing.

"Was it really necessary to beat my chest?" he coughed rubbing it.

"You son of a bitch!" roared Mary, hitting Kyle hard on the shoulder.

"I thought you were dead!" she shrieked

Kyle rubbed his shoulder.

"I don't know what I was; it was like I was floating outside my body."

Mary hit him again.

"I'm sorry!" said Kyle trying to shield himself.

Mary grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him to her, she glared at him for a few seconds, then angrily kissed him, Kyle broke away gasping for air.

"Wow…So does this---"

"Shut up," said Mary, and kissed him again.


	19. Chapter 19: Addiction

**_Author Note: The Inra-Red in this chapter is named after the song by Placebo that helped inspire the chapter_**

* * *

"Well this is certainly something new," said the White Mane, staring out over the massive glass crater that was the city of Ubar.

He had teleported to the outskirts of the city with 500 warriors prepared hunt down and kill every last monster, only to find that the job had apparently been done for him.

The White Mane's hawk like vision caught movement about a mile into the glass crater, he took off at a charge, running at a speed well over 50 M.P.H., wind blowing through his long shaggy mane; he came to a sudden stop before the Imperial Special Forces agents.

"Good Morning," he said cheerfully.

"You wouldn't by any chance know what happened here, would you?"

Kyle gave him a cheerful smile.

"Not a clue," he said Kyle, with his arm around Mary's shoulder.

The White Mane gave them a calculating smile, and filed this encounter under "scary shit" in his memory.

"Just thought I'd ask," he said, still smiling.

-

"I guess the secret's out," grunted the Black Mane, showing razor sharp teeth.

"Why do you want to kill him?" asked Kaleena

"Don't want to share your power?" she said, with a sneering smile.

The Black Mane glared at her.

"I'm not a power addict. The existence of two Manes would tear Elsweyr in two, and since I was here first, he should be the one to go."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself," winked Kaleena.

"You really don't have a high regard for your life do you?" said Black Mane, staring at her.

Kaleena shrugged, "No, I've just learned to recognize when someone has totally screwed themselves, and since I know you need our help to fix the mess you created, I figure I can say whatever the hell I want to you."

The Black Mane smiled at this, "You presume too much."

He grabbed Kaleena by the collar and shoved her hard against the wall.

"Always treat a person capable of killing you in the blink of an eye with _respect,_ there are a lot of people less forgiving than myself."

He let Kaleena go and she dropped to the floor.

"The two of you can get the hell out of my office now, and if I hear so much as a whisper that the leader of the desert rebels is a Mane, I _will_ kill you."

Verockus and Kaleena stood their ground.

"We know why you haven't been able to assassinate the White Mane."

The Black Mane looked them over carefully.

"I'm listening."

-

The Khajiit leaped through the trees, foaming at the mouth, blood leaking from his eyes, muscles bulging from strain; he paused on a branch and scanned the forest. It was a sunny day and the sounds of animals were everywhere; the Khajiit lifted his nose into the air and sniffed.

A flock of birds suddenly burst from the trees behind him; the Khajiit roared and whirled around in time to see an Orc crash into him. The orc's muscles were bulging at the neck; tears of blood slowly trickling from his eyes. The Orc grabbed the Khajiit's neck in his hands and the Khajiit dug his claws into the orc's chest, trying to rip out its heart. They fell together, hundreds of feet to the forest floor, tangled up in a ball of gnashing teeth and claws. The two warriors caught on vines as they fell through the sky and then hit the forest floor.

The Orc had broken a leg and blood was flowing freely from his forehead. The Khajiit had landed on his side and had broken half his ribs, his spine had begun to fracture and one of his arms was broken. The Khajiit and the Orc got to their feet, oblivious to their injuries; they took one look at each other, and attacked. The Orc charged forward despite his broken leg, he leapt through the air and came crashing down in front of the Khajiit, causing the broken bone to rip through muscles and skin. The Orc swung his fist into the Khajiit's torso, breaking more ribs with the powerful blow. The Khajiit swept his claws across the Orc's torso, creating a massive gash in his chest and causing entrails to spill out onto the forest floor. The Orc ignored the injury, He brought his elbow crashing down on the Khajiit's spine as it tried to dive away, breaking it in half. The Orc then punched through the Khajiit's back and came out on the other side. The Khajiit grabbed the Orc's dangling intestines in his unbroken arm and pulled the Orc to the ground, the Khajiit reached into the Orc's chest and wrapped his claws around the Orc's heart, he then crushed it in his grip.

The Khajiit laid on the bloodstained forest floor, and stared up at the treetops with his bleeding eyes, a ray of sun shined down upon him; he waited for death to take him. He waited a long time.

-

"We really need to something about those side affects," said Bart staring at the dieing Khajiit through a crystal ball.

"What the frack do you expect? This shit makes you stronger and meaner than a _fracking god_," said the blonde haired Imperial, twirling a vial of crimson liquid in his hand.

"What good is this crap if it makes ya burn out after 30 minutes?"

The blonde haired Imperial waved one of his thin arms.

"That's only after overexposure; this shit's _totally_ manageable in the short term."

Bart just glared at him.

The Imperial laughed, "Lighten up my man! We're about to become the richest sons of bitches to ever walk the world!"

The Imperial raised the liquid filled vial to the sun.

"We're gonna go down in history for this shit," he said, flicking the vial to Bart.

Bart caught it and turned around, he stared out over a massive field, full of workers picking the leafs of a long black bush.

"History isn't too kind on its subjects Saren."

Bart suddenly shivered; he could not shake the feeling that someone was watching him.

-

Bergen sat cross-legged in the middle of a dark room, made of the same dark blue stone found throughout the Solari ruin; he was in a state of deep meditation. Bergen suddenly opened his eyes and gave a grim smile.

"You've just signed your own death warrant Bart."

-

Tark and Zaquarl were in an archery range on the outskirts of Dune.

Tark strung his bow and took aim at the bull's eye 750 feet away, he breathed in and released the arrow; it flew through the air and struck the center of the target, landing right next to 12 other arrows all packed into the bull's eye.

"I believe that's another 20 drakes," said Tark smirking.

Zaquarl hissed and dropped the money into Tark's outstretched hand.

"I bet _you_ can't beat _me_ at arm wrestling," said Zaquarl coyly.

"I bet you're right," said Tark, strapping his bow to his back.

Kyle had told him about Zaquarl's arm wrestling scam.

Zaquarl flattened his ears, a sign of depression.

"Come on, I'll buy you lunch at the Bazaar," said Tark, slapping Zaquarl on the shoulder.

-

Mary shoved Kyle against the dark wall; she grabbed him by the collar and kissed him hard. Kyle ran his hand through her long blood red hair, they pushed away after about a minute and Mary hastily began unbuttoning her black leather armor.

Kyle grabbed her hands.

"Don't you think we're moving to fast?"

"Probably," she said, grinning

Mary raised an eyebrow, "Are you telling me you want to _stop?_" she said smirking.

"Not really, no."

Mary laughed and pushed Kyle onto the bed, she then landed on top of him. Kyle stared into her eyes for a few seconds; Mary smiled and kissed him again.

-

Kaleena and Verockus were walking on a rope bridge high in the trees.

"One word Captain: _Diplomacy_."

"I'm sorry, he got under my skin," said Kaleena crossing her arms.

"Captain, the universe is full of people who want to get under your skin; it's entirely _your_ decision to let them."

"For example, if your piss poor diplomatic skills had lost us Elsweyr, then you would have gotten under _my_ skin, then it would have been my decision to either forgive you or ship you back to Talaris in pieces, do you understand where I'm going with this?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, keep your temper in check from now on."

Verockus took out his Dagger Tail and whipped it into the trees, knocking down a papaya; he caught it then whipped the Dagger Tail around his back.

"Now we need to choose a location for the battle, and then we need to figure out how we're going to get the White Mane to come to us, knowing that we plan on killing him," he said biting into the papaya.

"Only one way I can think of," said Kaleena.

Verockus raised an eyebrow, "Do tell."

"We have to offer him a prize worth risking his life for; we have to offer him the Black Mane."

-

Saren stared out over the guardrail, and down into a massive production factory, the floor was covered with massive cauldrons full of a bubbling crimson liquid; Infra-Red. The stuff made every other battle stimulant look like decaffeinated coffee; it enhanced dexterity, strength, speed, agility, and reflexes tenfold. The only side affects were bleeding eyes, high blood pressure, and the occasional mild case of death.

Saren took a vial of Infra-Red out of his pocket and held it over his eyes, he then crushed it in his fist; he let the liquid drip onto his eyes.

"ARRRRGH!"

Saren dropped to his knees grimacing and breathing heavily, his muscles visibly throbbing and bulging.

"That's good," he said, getting to his feet.

"That's good."

-

Tark and Zaquarl were sitting in the back of the restaurant, surrounded by trays of food.

"When I said order what you want, I didn't mean the entire menu," said Tark, as he watched Zaquarl shove 5 pounds of meet down his throat.

"You sssholuld have been more ssspecific then," said Zaquarl, grabbing a 5 gallon jug of milk.

"You're just trying to get back your money," said Tark, ripping into a chicken leg.

Zaquarl responded by tossing a few deviled eggs into his mouth.

"Where the hell are you putting it all?"

Just then, Bergen walked in.

"Hello Commander, care to join us for lunch?" said Tark

Bergen surveyed the disaster area around Zaquarl's end of the table.

"….No, thank you."

"I got a mission for you two."

Zaquarl looked up from his food, licking his chops.

-

Kyle and Mary were lying beneath the covers on the bed breathing heavily.

"Ummmm….Wow" said Mary laughing out loud.

"I _am_ pretty amazing aren't I?" winked Kyle.

Mary hit Kyle on the shoulder.

"I think it was more of a _team_ effort," she said, grinning.

"That's _one_ opinion," said Kyle laughing.

"_Really?"_

Mary rolled over and tackled Kyle, pinning his arms to the bed.

"I'll let you up after I hear some compliments," she said, grinning impishly.

Kyle returned the grin "Is that a fact?"

"It is."

"Well what I don't want to be let up?"

Mary raised an eyebrow, "Well that works too," she said seductively

Mary leaned down and kissed Kyle.

-

"Saren!"

Saren turned around. "What can I do for you Bart?"

Bart looked at Saren disgusted; blood was slowly trickling from his eyes.

"Gods damnit! You've been juicing again!"

Saren winked, "Just a little pick me up."

"How the frack do you expect to make anything when you're draining the whole god damn stock!"

Saren's face lit up.

"About the profits, I've figured out a way to double my income," he said happily.

Bart narrowed his eyes.

"And what's _that?_"

"It's simple really…"

Saren dashed forward, faster than the eye could see. Bart looked down, sticking out of his gut was a sword, and Saren's hand was on the handle.

"I just eliminate my partner," said Saren, ripping the sword out of Bart's guts with a sickening sound

Bart fell to the ground, his eyes lifeless.

-

"Unlike the fire bombs we used at Darkwater, these are set to a timer, and they're magically and chemically enriched so make sure you're not anywhere near them when they detonate," said Bergen, throwing Tark and Zaquarl each a bag filled with fire bombs.

"Check," said Tark, catching the bag.

"Let'z get thisss ssshow on the road."

-

The arrow landed in the Orc's windpipe, causing it to collapse; Tark jumped over the twitching corpse, and ran to the next warehouse.

KAAABOOOOM!

The heat from the blast singed the hair on Tark's neck, but he didn't look back or slow down. Two more guards blocked his path; Tark strung two arrows to his bow and fired them simultaneously, they each hit their targets, ripping into the guards hearts. He was like a demon against the night, with his dark blue skin, pointy ears, and glowing red eyes.

Tark kicked down the door to the next warehouse and grabbed two fire bombs from his bag; he keyed the timers and threw them into crates full of Infra-Red. He then turned around and hauled ass to the next warehouse.

-

Zaquarl soared threw the air like an oversized bird, he landed on top of two Nordic guards; his claws grabbed hold of each of their throats, and then with an audible rip he toar out their esophagus.

KAAABOOOOM!

The wind from the blast swept over Zaquarl's back; with a growl, Zaquarl was back on his feet and charging to the next warehouse.

A Khajiit guard lay ahead of him, Zaquarl flipped threw the air and landed gracefully behind the Khajiit, he then grabbed the guard's head from behind and snapped his neck.

Zaquarl saw the warehouse up ahead, he jumped into it threw the window; crashing threw the glass. He armed two fire bombs and threw them, then jumped back out the window.

-

Bergen sent a blast of fire scorching though the fields, he directed it with his mind, making it roast every single plant to a crisp; the fire was so hot it insured that not a single seed would survive. Bergen listened as Tark and Zaquarl blew up the various warehouses, and finally the manufacturing plant.

Bergen had felt Bart's death shortly before they attacked; he had placed a tracking spell on him during their last encounter, if he concentrated hard enough he could see what he was doing anywhere within a thousand miles. It was a pity the spell only worked on those with greedy or weak minds; the spell only worked as long as it remained hidden and those preoccupied with personal gain or just plain stupid could not detect it.

Bergen watched the raging fire with a grim satisfaction; Bart's debt to him was settled.

-

Saren grabbed the case of Infra-Red and sprinted out of the burning room. He figured that one of the Manes had finally figured out what he was up too, and was pouring down swift retribution. It didn't really matter, Saren could rebuild his operation anywhere, he wouldn't need Bart's money this time around, he had his own.

Saren charged into the burning fields, if he could make it to the other side, he would be home free.

-

Tark and Zaquarl surveyed the burning ruins of the drug farm from the top of the hill.

"Good work," said Tark holding out his fist.

"You too," said Zaquarl pounding the fist.

"Looks like we got a runner," said Tark, pointing to a man sprinting through the burning fields.

Tark and Zaquarl took off after him.

-

The arrow flew past Saren face, cutting his cheek as it went by.

"Why don't you go ahead and drop what you're carrying and turn around."

Saren gave a dark chuckle and opened his box; he took out two large bottles of Infra-Red and let the rest crash to the ground. He flicked the caps off the bottles and turned to face his enemies.

"You got it," he said pouring the liquid over his eyes.

He threw the empty bottles to the ground where they shattered.

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"

Tark watched in horror as the man's eyes dissolved into bloody puss, his muscles bulging to the point where they threatened to tear through his skin.

Tark sent an arrow flying into his neck, but it didn't penetrate the bulging muscles.

"Zaquarl! You're on!"

Zaquarl nodded and leapt through the air, Saren lashed out with one of his arms, Zaquarl was knocked 10 feet through the air and landed sprawled on the ground.

"RAAAAAHHHHH!"

Saren's muscles tore through his skin, ripping it apart at the seams.

"MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!" he roared, as the skin fell to the ground.

"Holy shit!" gasped Tark.

He and Zaquarl watched mouths agape as Saren's body became a bloody mess, until finally Saren collapsed to the ground, a lifeless corpse.

"Well that Waz a ssseriously fracked up way to go," said Zaquarl, from his spot on the ground.


	20. Chapter 20: Crossroads

The fire bomb exploded 5 feet away from the Black Mane, the blast burned away a section of his fur; he gritted his teeth and stared out over the fiery battlefield. Jian-Ti and Desert Rebels clashed against each other in the warm jungle air, fire bombs exploded left and right, and body parts were flying through the air.

The Black Mane glared across the battlefield at the gigantic white and black striped Khajiit that was the White Mane, his white and black fur was stained with blood; the White Mane bared his teeth into a snarl and glared back.

The Black Mane bared his fangs, "Let's finish this," he growled, and then charged across the battlefield.

-

_**24 hours earlier**_

Verockus and Kaleena were standing before the Black Mane in his dome shaped office. The office was lit by natural light flowing in from 16 different geometrically shaped windows; vine and ivy were growing up and down the white walls.

"The Wilderland Jungles, birthplace of the first Mane, it's only natural that it should be the death place for one," said Verockus

The Black Mane raised an eyebrow, "Why there?"

"Because it offers absolutely no tactical advantage for either side, it'll be a fair fight, which guarantees that the White Mane will come."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because he wants to finish this just as much as you do, we're going to march into the Wilderland Jungles with 2,000 Jian-Ti and just sit there, our message will be clear: _come and get it_."

"The plan is as good as any," said the Black Mane, crossing his strong arms.

The Black Mane narrowed his eyes.

"I'll only warn you once; if you try to frack me over, you will die _slowly_."

"The White Mane has already sided with the Empire, what reason would we have to betray you?"

The Black Mane bared his teeth into a menacing grin.

"In my experience, a person can find a reason to do just about anything."

-

Kaleena stared off into space as she walked down the rope bridge, a look of great unease on her face.

Verockus shook his head and sighed, "Fine, let's have it."

Kaleena looked up at him, "Does this feel…wrong to you?"

Verockus stared at her as if she was crazy, "Don't tell me you're developing a guilty conscience," he groaned.

Kaleena shook her head in irritation, "No, I mean wrong as in inaccurate, as in 2+2 equals 5. _that_ kind of wrong?"

"If there's a flaw in the plan, by all means tell me," said Verockus, finally taking her seriously.

"It's not like that; this just doesn't feel…._right_," said Kaleena rubbing her head.

"How so?"

Kaleena was silent for a little while before she spoke.

"Nature created both the Black Mane _and_ the White Mane, right?"

Verockus nodded.

Kaleena threw her hands into the air

"_Why!? _I mean for thousands of years there has only been _one_ Mane, now there's two, _why?_"

Verockus didn't have an answer.

"I find it hard to believe that Nature created two Manes simply so one could kill the other."

"What's your point Captain?" said Verockus impatiently.

"My _point_, General, is that if Nature does not intend for the Manes to kill each other, then it has another plan entirely, and we're fracking with it, and bad things happen when you frack with Nature."

Verockus smiled, "Then you don't have to worry, if nature intends for something to happen, it _will_ happen, regardless of how much you try to prevent it."

Verockus turned and continued down the rope bridge, Kaleena stared up at the sky thoughtfully, then followed.

-

The White Mane closed his eyes and let the desert wind gently blow through his fur, he reopened his eyes and stared out across the vast dunes, they seemed to go on forever; it was a good place to think, he often went out here with his generals and advisors.

"I don't understand," said the Desert Rebel, staring at the report.

The White Mane breathed in the perfumed desert air, "Don't you?" he said, smiling contently.

"No, the Black Mane is just sitting there in the middle of the Wilderland Jungles, with only 2,000 Jian-Ti, _begging_ for us to come over there and kick his ass."

"It's an open invitation Mar'que, the Black Mane thinks its time we finish this, and I agree. Select 2,000 thousand of our best soldiers and be ready to move out by tomorrow morning."

"_Only_ 2,000 sir? I can easily have 50,000 ready to move out by that time, with that number we'd _crush_ the Black Mane."

"2,000 are all we need," said the White Mane calmly, it was clear the discussion was over.

The White Mane closed his eyes and breathed deeply, savoring the desert air.

"Can you smell that Mar'que?" said The White Mane, lifting his nose to the wind.

"Smell what sir?" said Mar'que, perplexed.

"Change…Destiny…...Betrayal."

The White Mane suddenly opened his eyes, "A storm is approaching,"

-

The team sat around Bergen who had small black stone box in his hands with the Imperial Crest on the top; Bergen opened the box and took out a silver amulet with a green gem in the middle, it had no chain. He took the amulet and slammed it against his chest, light exploded around him and when it cleared, he was wearing a deadly looking layered armor. The first layer was composed of fine black leather that covered his arms, legs, and chest. The second layer was composed of a deadly and beautiful black metal that was so polished you could see your reflection in it. This covered his forearms in the form of bracers, as well as his fingers and the top of his hands, the effect was that he could block blows with his arms, and could punch any object without hurting himself. The black metal also covered his legs in the form of greaves and boots; it covered his chest in the form of cuirass, centered near the top was the amulet, on his right shoulder in silver was the Imperial Crest, and on his collar was the insignia of an Imperial Commander. His outfit was completed with a black cape made of black cloth trailing down his back.

"This is Shadow Armor, before now it was only available to an elite covert organization within the Empire, its light as a feather and harder than diamonds."

"It looks like you're a bloody grim reaper; do we _have_ to wear it?" said Tark, eyeing the armor with distaste.

"You represent the Empire, so yes, you have to wear it," replied Bergen.

"I think it looks fetching," said Mary, eyeing the armor with a gleam in her eye.

"You would," snorted Tark.

Bergen crossed his arms.

"This is the Imperial Legion, not a fashion show, the armor works and that's all that matters; if you don't like it, then you can fight naked," he said coldly.

"Fine by me, I don't do full body armor and I like a nice breeze in my nether regionz," said Zaquarl, crossing his arms.

"The armor conforms to your individual species," said Bergen taking off the amulet.

His armor disappeared in a flash of light and he threw the amulet at Zaquarl, it hit his chest dead on, Zaquarl fell over backwards in a blast of light.

He got to his feet snarling, he was wearing the armor with the exception of the layer of black leather and the cape. Instead, he was just wearing the polished black metal, in the form of cuirass, bracers, and guards on his hips and shins.

Zaquarl paused in mid snarl, "I can't even feel it, it's like its weightless," said Zaquarl jumping up and down.

"It is," stated Bergen, tossing out the amulets.

Everyone took one and slammed it against their chest.

"Looking good," whispered Mary, casually slapping Kyle on the butt as she went by.

"Figures you would be the one to like this," said Kyle, grinning.

Kyle, Mary, and Tark all removed their capes and threw them into a corner of the room, Mary looked from Zaquarl to the cape.

"I think your outfit is missing something," she said, picking up one of the capes.

She took out her dagger and cut off a long thin strip, then walked over to Zaquarl.

"Hold still," she said, tying it around his forehead.

She took a step back and admired her work.

"_Now_ you look like a bad ass," she said grinning at the bandanna.

-

Kaleena had watched, sweltering from the desert heat, as the White Mane gathered his 2,000 soldiers; they now all stood in camps 30 miles outside of Dune, waiting for noon tomorrow when they would teleport in mass to the Wilderland Jungles. Night was now approaching and with it the air was cooling, Kaleena pulled the hood of her robes down over her face and made her way to the camps.

The tents she passed had music playing in them and were filled with laughing soldiers. Kaleena had to smile at the irony of it, they were going into battle with an enemy of equal strength and size; statistically atleast half of them weren't going to make it out alive. But that was how it usually was; you could do one of two things before a battle, spend every waking second anticipating it, or not think about it at all.

Kaleena reached out with her mind, searching for that _one_ presence…….

Kaleena smiled, "There you are."

-

The Black Mane lifted his nose and breathed in the humid jungle air, a grim expression on his face.

The Black Mane closed his eyes, "It seems the ghosts of the past walk among us once more," he said quietly

"Did you sssay sssomething sssir?" asked the Jian-Ti officer behind him.

The Black Mane opened his eyes.

"Brace yourself Habatu; a storm is approaching," said The Black Mane opening his eyes.

"Sssir?"

The Black Mane jumped from the tree branch he had been standing on, and landed gracefully on the ground 15 feet below, Habatu followed.

"Make another circuit through the soldiers, make sure they're alert, we will have only a 5 minute warning before the Desert Rebels teleport in among us."

"We're ready to fight to the death," said Habatu, dead serious.

"I know," said The Black Mane turning around.

"Go now," he said with a gesture of his head.

-

Kyle, Mary, Tark, and Zaquarl were in a large tent that had been turned into a makeshift arena, soldiers had been training in it all day, now they were the only ones in there.

"Just what I always wanted; to baby sit a gigantic fluffy cat," swinging her sword staff at Kyle's neck.

Kyle knocked the blow to the side with his sword.

"It's not our war, we need to respect that."

Mary slammed her sword staff on her knee, disconnecting it into two short staffs with blades on the end.

"I _don't_ sit on the sidelines, it's not in my nature," she said twirling the blades in her hands.

Kyle felt for the hidden switch built into the handle of his sword, he flipped it and the sword came apart into two separate swords. Mary charged at him, her movement a blur, Kyle continued knocking her blows to side.

"This battle is a family dispute, outsiders simply aren't welcome."

Mary growled and broke apart.

"You're getting good, a month a go you couldn't hold me off, now I can't land a blow,"

She reconnected her sword staff and Kyle did the same to his sword

"You know, I'm starting to come around to this armor," said Tark, modeling himself in front of a large mirror.

Kyle rolled his eyes; Tark had always been obsessed with what he was wearing, not as much as some other elves though.

Someone suddenly burst out laughing

"Yes, black is a _very_ sexy look for you," laughed a feminine voice from up on the stands.

The group whipped around and saw a robed figure sitting up on the stands; she had somehow entered without anyone noticing.

"Who the hell are you?" blurted out Mary, angry that someone had snuck up on her.

The figure threw off her robes in a flourish revealing a strangely beautiful Dark Elf with her hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing tight fitting adamantium armor that accentuated all of her curves.

"Kaleena!" shouted Tark.

"Nice to see you to," said Kaleena, leaping down from the stands to join them on the floor.

"Unlessss I'm mistaken, you're the enemy, right?" said Zaquarl staring at her.

"No, you're right," said Kaleena happily.

"Then what the hell are you doing here?"

Kaleena's expression became serious, "I need your help."

-

Bergen was lying on his back in the sand looking up at the stars; he couldn't remember the last time he had taken the time to just _look_ at them; his life had become one _long_ blur of bad memories. Memories of the people he had killed, the people he had _seen_ killed, and all of the horrible, evil, things he had done over the years. When he had joined the Shadow Organization, they told him these memories were the price he would have to pay in order to keep the world from falling into chaos. Eventually he came to realize that _chaos_ was the world's natural state; as long as people existed they would continue to kill one another, as long as there was land people would always fight over it, as long as there was love, there would always be hate; that was the way of things, and Bergen could _never_ change that, but that didn't stop him from trying.

Bergen looked at his hand, at the black armor covering it. It had been 6 years since he had last donned Shadow Armor; he had given the designs for the armor and the magical amulet to the Legion, who then began circulating it to Imperial Legion Special Forces; he did it to send a message to whoever might be listening, the message was; _I'm Back_.

-

"The last time we tried to help you it didn't work out so well for us," said Tark dryly.

"You chained us up in Talaris's quarters!"

"And I had to ssscale a 2,500 foot ssskyscraper to get us out!" said Zaquarl angrily.

"Oh! So _that's_ how you did it! Nice move," said Kaleena approvingly.

"Ah it waz nothing," said Zaquarl waving a paw through the air, "In fact one time---"

Kyle cut Zaquarl off.

"We admire your spunk, we _do_, but I'm afraid our answer is going to have to be…go to hell," said Kyle, shrugging his shoulders sadly.

Kaleena shook her head, "I knew this wasn't going to be easy," she groaned.

"Alright, I'm _sorry_ for chaining you up, feel better?" said Kaleena, sarcastically.

"Is she _trying_ to get her ass kicked?" said Mary staring.

Kaleena grinned, "I'd like to see you try princess,"

Mary burst out laughing, but it wasn't the nice kind of laughter.

Kyle, Tark, and Zaquarl exchanged a collective grimace.

"Oh it is _so_ on," she said lunging at Kaleena.

Mary punched Kaleena in the face; Kaleena grabbed the extended arm and flipped Mary over her back. As soon as Mary landed she lashed out with her legs, and tripped Kaleena to the ground, she then jumped on her back and pulled Kaleena's hair.

"Beg a little and _maybe_ I'll let you go," hissed Mary.

Kaleena threw her head bag, smashing into Mary's nose; she then bucked her body, knocking Mary off.

"You're going down bitch!" screamed Kaleena, getting to her feet.

Tark and Kyle looked at Zaquarl.

"Don't look at me! I'm not getting in the middle of thisss!" said Zaquarl defensively.

"She's _your_ best friend," said Kyle.

"_Ssso!?_ She'z your girlfriend!"

Kaleena charged at Mary, Mary quickly dodged to the side and held out her arm, Kaleena ran into it head first and fell to the floor.

"_That_ was for the nose," grinned Mary.

"_This_ is for Firsthold!"

Mary brought her foot down on Kaleena's face, but Kaleena caught it and yanked Mary to the ground.

Tark and Kyle watched as Mary and Kaleena rolled around on the ground screaming and punching each other.

Kyle gave a long sigh, "Alright, you grab your girlfriend, I'll grab mine."

"She's not my girlfriend," said Tark tiredly.

"Who's in denial now?"

"Oh _shut_ up"

Kyle and Tark ran in and pulled them off each other, Kyle waved his hand over both of their injuries and they healed.

"Why did you heal her!" screamed Mary.

"Because you broke her nose!" Kyle shouted back

"I _meant_ to do it!"

Everyone started shouting at once.

"How about everyone just calm the _frack_ down!" Kyle roared over everyone's shouts.

Everyone got quiet.

"Ok! Now, Kaleena, I believe you were trying to make a point before you decided to piss off Mary,"

"So you agree that she started it?" said Mary, crossing her arms.

"Can we at least _try_ to stay on topic?"

Kyle knew she was probably going to take this out on him later, and the expression on her face confirmed his suspicions.

"Kaleena?"

"By this time tomorrow there will be only one Mane, the other will be dead, we _must_ prevent this from happening,"

Zaquarl narrowed his eyes, "Just what are you proposing?"

"Becauze you ssshould know now that my first loyalty iz to my people and absolutely nothing will change that."

"Then maybe it's time you ask your self what's really best for your people!" snapped Kaleena.

Fire burned in Zaquarl's eyes.

"What would _you_ know about it?" he said dangerously.

"The jungle tribez outnumber us 2 to 1, and they look at us like we're _dirt_, because _we_ alone respect the traditionz of our ancestorsss."

"Do you want to know what _my_ childhood was like?" asked Zaquarl, shaking with anger.

"I grew up in an orphanage in Sssenchal, want to know _why?_ Becauze my parents were political prisonerz, they were arrested because the Black Mane's predecessor needed workerz to mine the salt in the desert, and why pay people a sssalary when you can just arrest them off the street, guess who he arrested? _Us!_ The desert scum!"

Zaquarl's face was full of hatred.

"My parents spoke out and they were sent to the minez, and I couldn't go to an orphanage in Dune, because they were all full from the Orphans of Tesar, don't look for the town on any map, because the Jian-Ti destroyed it when it declared its independence."

The team looked at Zaquarl in shock.

"At the orphanage I was looked at like _Garbage_, because I'm _Desert Tribe_ and I _respect _the traditions of my ancestors. So I learned to fight, they might not have respected me, but they certainly learned to fear me."

"_They_ pushed us to where we are now; they deserve every bit of what's coming to them."

"Ssso tell me again, why do you think the Black Mane deserves to live?" asked Zaquarl, glaring at Kaleena.

It took Kaleena awhile to find her voice, but when she did, she returned Zaquarl's glare.

"Say you kill the Black Mane? What happens then?"

"Then my people will have justice," said Zaquarl resolutely.

"The Mane who killed your parents, and sent your people to the mines has been dead for over 20 years, so how does killing this one give you justice?"

"The Jungle Tribez have to pay for what they've done to us!"

Kaleena gave a grim smile, "You mean they have to take your place, you want them to know your pain," she said sadly.

Zaquarl said nothing.

Kaleena looked at Zaquarl with sympathetic eyes.

"I use to want the same thing of the Daedra. They butchered my _entire_ family, I wanted to make them _suffer_, I wanted to hurt them _so_ badly, I wanted to make them die a thousand deaths; I wanted to rip out _every _last one of their hearts. I thought if I could make them know my pain, then it would go away, but it didn't. I killed _hundreds_ in the Oblivion War, and the only thing that happened was the more lives I took, the sicker I felt, my hate was _consuming_ me."

"Hate is a poison Zaquarl, it will devour your very soul, the only way to get rid of it is to forgive those you hate, so that's what I did, I forgave the Daedra."

"Unless you let go of your hate, you can't move forward."

The anger gradually faded from Zaquarl's face, it was replaced by shame.

"What'sss your plan?" he asked.

Just as Kaleena opened her mouth, a Desert Rebel entered the tent.

"Captain Delanius?"

Kyle turned to address the soldier.

"What is it?"

"The White Mane requests your presence."

-

The White Mane held the two sticks of incense in his paw and gently blew on their tops, causing them to catch fire; he placed them in the brass pot and knelt on the mat before him, closing his eyes.

"Do you meditate Captain?" asked the White Mane.

"On occasion," said the figure behind him.

"It _used_ to help me to perceive patterns and connections, helped me make sense of what is happening to the world, but now all I see is a tangled web, too dense and complicated to navigate."

"The strands of destiny are pulling tight Captain, soon we will all be swept up into the web," said the White Mane, getting to his feet.

"Why did you ask me here?" asked Kyle

"Because while I don't know what's coming, I _do_ know that this story revolves around you, and that you're going to be major player in the events to come," said the White Mane, facing Kyle.

Kyle burst out laughing, "I'm afraid you're wrong, I'm not a major player in anything, I'm just a soldier."

"No, your father was the soldier; that was why he couldn't change his fate, you're something else entirely."

Kyle stopped laughing, "What do you know about my father?"

"I know that he was a good man, and that he lived and died by his moral compass…and that he was completely powerless to stop what's coming."

"And what exactly is coming?" asked Kyle angrily.

The White Mane smiled grimly.

"An ancient beast, awoken by the Oblivion War,"

"I _assume_ your talking in metaphor again," said Kyle dryly

The White Mane shrugged.

"Just thought I should give you a heads up; I might not be around to do it tomorrow."

Kyle thought back to the conversation between Zaquarl and Kaleena.

"Are you sure this is the right course? Killing the Black Mane?"

The White Mane chuckled.

"Captain, this is one of those things where the outcome has already been decided on by destiny. It doesn't matter what I do, what's going to happen is going to happen."

With that, the White Mane excused Kyle.

-

With a blast of light Kaleena appeared next to Verockus and the Black Mane.

"They're coming!"

The Black Mane nodded and leapt into the nearest tree, swinging from branch to branch as he climbed up, when he was 150 feet in the air he opened his massive jaws and released a deafening roar.

"TO BATTLE!!!"

Throughout the jungle, the Jian-Ti echoed the battle cry.

The jungle exploded in flashes of light as Desert Rebels materialized, it was then filled with roars and explosions as the two factions tore into each other.

The Black Mane leapt from the tree, wind blowing through his thick black mane as he dived to the forest floor below.

-

Kyle batted away the ninja stars with his swords, he then waved his arm and sent the attacker flying through the air with telekinesis, guarding the White Mane was turning into a more interesting job than he thought it was, the Mane liked to be right in the thick of the action.

Zaquarl fell back as the two Jian-Ti agents lashed out at him, they were good at the Martial Arts, but Zaquarl was better. Zaquarl grabbed one of his attackers by their outstretched arm and twisted it behind him, snapping it; he then delivered a crippling blow to the neck. Zaquarl threw the unconscious body at the remaining agent who caught it and stumbled backwards, Zaquarl then knocked him out with a punch to the head.

Mary twirled her staff sword around her like a baton, sending body parts flying in every direction. She then disconnected the staff sword and swung the individual blades like meat cleavers into her enemies. It did not take them long to realize that it was probably a good idea to leave her alone. She reconnected her staff sword and looked at the White Mane, who seemed to be the object of the Jian-Ti's attention.

The White Mane's fur was covered in blood, but it was not his own. He tore through his enemies like a hurricane. The White Mane closed his eyes and came to a halt, his enemies cautiously surrounded him, suddenly a massive blast of lightning emitted from him like a shockwave, it blasted through his enemies, sending them flying.

The White Mane suddenly whipped his head around and found the Black Mane staring at him from across the battlefield, the White Mane bared his teeth into a snarl; the Black Mane charged.

-

The fire bomb exploded 5 feet away from the Black Mane, the blast burned away a section of his fur; he gritted his teeth and stared out over the fiery battlefield. Jian-Ti and Desert Rebels clashed against each other in the warm jungle air, fire bombs exploded left and right, and body parts were flying through the air.

The Black Mane glared across the battlefield at the gigantic white and black striped Khajiit that was the White Mane, his white and black fur was stained with blood; the White Mane bared his teeth into a snarl and glared back.

The Black Mane bared his fangs, "Let's finish this," he growled, and then charged across the battlefield.

-

Kaleena watched as the Black Mane charged across the field at the White Mane, _It's now or never,_ she thought. Kaleena closed her eyes and reached out with her mind to contact the Imperials.

-

Tark felt Kaleena's mind touch him, he reached into his quiver and pulled out the two arrows residing there, he strung them to his bow and took aim at the two Manes, now charging across the field at each other; he took a deep breath, timing it perfectly, he released the arrows.

-

Kyle charged across the field at the spot where the two Manes would collide, Mary and Zaquarl clearing the path. The world seemed to be going both fast and slow at the same time, 50 feet…40….20…15…10…as if in slow motion Kyle saw two arrows flying through the air, they buried into both Mane's shoulders, then Kyle and the Manes collided.

-

Light exploded around Kyle and the Manes, when it cleared, they were gone. Everyone on the battlefield stopped attacking, and began chattering in confusion.

-

With an explosion of light Kyle and the Manes appeared in the middle of the desert.

Kyle took out his flask and took a long drink of water.

"I don't think I've ever had to run that fast in my entire life," said Kyle panting.

The two Manes lay on the sand unmoving.

"The arrow currently residing in your shoulder contains a paralyzing agent, but luckily you can still speak. I think this would be a good time for the two of you to work out some of your issues, don't you?"

"You've _got_ to be kidding me," groaned the Black Mane.

The White Mane started laughing, "That's pretty clever," he said chuckling.

"Would you shut the hell up already!" growled the Black Mane.

"What are you going to do if I don't, stick your tongue out at me?" asked The White Mane, still roaring with laughter.

The Black Mane snapped his jaws, trying desperately to move.

"I'll go ahead and get us started then," said Kyle happily.

"Why do you want to kill the White Mane so badly?"

"The existence of two Manes will tear Elsweyr in two!"

"Elsweyr was torn in two long before I showed up, you stupid ass!"

"Oh! So you _can_ get angry then," sneered the Black Mane.

"You know _nothing_ of anger, the Jungle Tribes have never been sent to the salt mines, nor have they had their cities destroyed when they disagreed with the government."

"I had nothing to do with that! That was my predecessor; I'm the one who put a stop to it!"

The White Mane started laughing, "I guess that makes you a saint then, huh?"

"I don't _care_ what your opinion of me is; my loyalties, my _only_ loyalties, are to the Khajiit race and Elsweyr."

"Which Khajiit are you talking about? You've done plenty of good for the jungle tribes, but you sure as hell haven't done anything to protect or help the Desert Tribes."

"What the hell can I do? You don't _want_ my help!"

Kyle raised an eyebrow, "Listen to what you've just said, how can you lead your people if a third of them don't want anything to do with you?"

The White Mane just glared.

"Well, do you have an answer?" asked the White Mane.

"Do _you?_ Because I seriously doubt that the Jungle Tribes are going to follow you willingly."

The White Mane said nothing.

"Luckily for _both_ of you, I have the answer," said Kyle

"Don't tell me, _learn to get along?_" sneered the Black Mane.

"It's really your only option, and when I say it's your only option, I don't just mean politically, I'm going to leave the person who refuses to get along stranded in the desert."

"I know Elsweyr like the back of my hand, that's not much of a threat."

Kyle leaned forward, "Who says we're in Elsweyr?" he said grinning.

"Besides which, that arrow is going to leave you paralyzed for a week unless I give you the antidote."

"What's it going to be gentlemen? The only logical option or a permanent vacation in the middle of the desert?"

-

Everyone had laid down their weapons after the Manes had disappeared they were all know muttering amongst each other, confused.

There was a sudden flash of light and the Manes reappeared along with a blonde haired Imperial.

Everyone suddenly picked up their weapons again, waiting for orders from their respective leaders.

"Lay down your arms!" they shouted.

"We've agreed on a truce," grunted the Black Mane.

-

Bergen and Kyle sat across from the two Manes, in a room of the Great Bazaar, which was being converted once more into a Royal Palace. The White Mane and the Black Mane had decided to govern Elsweyr as far away from each other as they could get, so the Black Mane would govern from Senchal and the White Mane would govern from Dune.

"My _colleague_ and I have discussed the matter thoroughly, and since he has already made a formal alliance with the Empire, that alliance still stands, we will send 200,000 troops to your aid," growled the Black Mane.

"Thank your majesties," said Bergen bowing.

Kyle and Bergen then turned and left.

"Now there is a kid who has _'I'm going to die young' _written all over his face," said the Black Mane, once Kyle was out of earshot.

"Yeah, I didn't want to tell him that part, it would have only upset him," said the White Mane sadly.


	21. Chapter 21: Ghosts of the Past

Mathias Delanius and Carmine Vexes came to a halt before General Stormbringer and saluted. Stormbringer solemnly returned the salute; he looked like a man who hadn't slept in days.

"Gentlemen, Dagon is kicking our ass."

Mathias knew what Stormbringer was talking about. Since the start of the war 4 months back the Legion had loss control of more than half of Tamriel and suffered 40 percent casualties, while Dagon and his army kept right on coming, in short they were losing the war, by Mathias's calculations Tamriel would fall in under 3 months unless something was done to stop the Daedric hordes.

The redguard known as Bergen was leaning against the stone wall behind Stormbringer, looking at Mathias and Vexes with a calculating gaze.

"This is usually the part where we start coming up with bat shit crazy suicidal plans in a desperate last move to defeat our enemy."

"And it just so happens that I have such a plan, and I want you two to be a part of it. If you volunteer it will most likely end in your death, that being said, are you in?"

"You had us at bat shit crazy, sir," said Mathias dryly.

Stormbringer gestured to the redguard behind him.

"And what would a bat shit crazy plan be without a Shadow Agent to complicate the hell out of it."

"Thank you for that warm introduction, General," said Bergen standing up straight.

"You might have heard that there was a Daedric raid on the Bastion recently, hundreds dead and the entire raiding party wiped out. What you don't know is that we set it up; we leaked the floor plans to the Bastion to Dagon, Dagon took the bait and sent in a raiding party to capture the Shogun. We set up an ambush and captured their entire team, not without a few casualties obviously." Bergen paused briefly to let what he was saying sink in, then continued.

"The commander of the party, one Colonel Zorrick a Dremora Valkynaz, revealed some rather interesting information when questioned."

Vexes snorted, "You can't break a Dremora, let alone a Valkynaz."

Bergen smiled slightly, "We have our ways."

Mathias didn't doubt it; he was starting to get a measure of Bergen's character.

"It turns out that Zorrick used to be Mehrunes Dagon's personal aide, until he pissed off the wrong people and got put in charge of the raiding party. While under Dagon's direct employ he learned several interesting things, things that Dagon managed to keep secret from even his fellow gods. Dagon has a library containing the kind of information and objects that sink entire continents into the ocean, my guess is he's trying to make himself strong enough to take on his fellow gods, wipe out the competition and the universe is his for taking. According to Zorrick the Library is where Dagon designed the Oblivion Gates; it's our hope that it also contains the information to destroy them."

Mathias and Vexes looked at Bergen like he was eating the wrong kind of mushrooms.

"How are we going to even get there?"

Bergen reached into his armor and pulled out a stone cylinder about 1 inch wide 6 inches long.

"This is called a Sigil Stick; it can redirect an Oblivion gate to anywhere in Dagon's realm, after that all we have to do to get home is break it and it will send us right back, the only problem is that once you redirect the gate it only has enough power to teleport 3 people."

"And I assume you got the address to the library off of Zorrick?" said Mathias.

Bergen nodded.

"3 people alone in Oblivion, raiding Mehrunes Dagon's personal library….this oughta be _real_ good."

-

The fiery portal of the Oblivion Gate suddenly roared and turned a dark purple. Mathias looked to his left at Bergen; the man was staring intently at the gate, the sigil stick in hand.

Mathias turned to his right and whispered to Vexes, "I don't trust this asshole, you watch my back and I'll watch yours."

"Then you're a smarter man than I gave you credit for Commander Delanius," said Bergen loudly.

Bergen turned to look Mathias directly in the eyes.

"In this world you can't trust anyone, not even your partner over there, trust will get you killed."

With that uplifting statement Bergen jumped into the gate.

"That man would make a killing as a motivational speaker," joked Vexes.

Mathias and Vexes then jumped into the gate.

Purple and white lights swirled around them, and suddenly with a loud whoosh they landed on a polished black stone floor. They looked up to see a long triangle shaped corridor, well over a thousand feet in height, 300 feet in width. At the end of the massive black corridor were two utterly gigantic double doors. Mathias, Vexes, and Bergen got to their feet.

Vexes looked up in amazement at the massive corridor.

"There's no way we can navigate something this large," he said awestruck.

A yellow light suddenly exploded in front of them, out of it emerged a floating metal sphere about 1 ½ feet in diameter with a bright white circular light on its front.

"Tallax mehue jurox,"

"What the hell is it saying, that's not Daedric," said Mathias, resting his hand on his sword.

The metal sphere's light suddenly turned to focus on Mathias, the light brightened in intensity for 5 seconds then returned to normal.

"Welcome to The Library," said the sphere, in a clear emotionless voice.

"What are you?" asked Bergen.

The Sphere focused its light on Bergen for a second.

"I am a Solaris Class 72 Artificial Intelligence Construct; my current purpose is to serve as a guide for anyone wishing to peruse The Library."

"How may I be of service?"


	22. Chapter 22: Empire

Fort Stalwart was quite possibly the most important fort in the world, unfortunately for the Empire and the Coalition they would not realize just _how_ important it was until it was too late. It laid on the northern edge of Cyrodil in the Jerall Mountains; and contained a garrison of 120 Legionnaires; the Fort had the responsibility of patrolling half of the Jerall Mountains, but that wasn't why the fort was important. Fort Stalwart had a secondary responsibility; it housed every Sigil Stone captured by the Empire during the Oblivion War ten years ago. Originally the Sigil Stones had been sent to the Mages Guild, which was given the task of learning their secrets, but after 3 years of absolutely no results the Sigil Stones were packed up and stored in Fort Stalwart, where they had remained untouched for 7 years.

General Carmine Vexes observed the fort silently, his breathing creating a fog in the cold night air. Vexes was clad entirely in black leather armor that had been enchanted with invisibility, he was currently crouched in the trees above the fort, along with 30 other similarly dressed soldiers. Vexes sniffed the air, now was the time; half the fort's garrison were off on patrol, ironically enough, they were looking for Vexes and his soldiers. Vexes gestured to his troops and they moved in on the fort, they moved so silently against the night they could have been ghosts. Along the top of the fort's walls were stationed 12 watchmen, 3 on each side of the fort. Vexes and his troops encircled the fort, Vexes then gave the order to fire simultaneously with his mind. There were several dull twangs as an arrow landed each guard's throat, the wounded soldiers gave a gargling noise as air and blood welled up in their throat then died. Vexes took no joy out of killing the Legionnaires, but he did what he had to do. Vexes and his soldiers crept into the fort, then moving from barracks to barracks they proceeded to kill all the remaining Legionnaires as they slept by cutting their throats.

Vexes walked up to the wooden door leading to the fort's basement and kicked it down then proceeded inside with 10 soldiers while the rest stood guard outside. Inside the basement were barrels stacked one upon the other containing supplies and rows and shelves containing rusting weaponry and armor. Vexes moved towards the door in the back of the basement, he opened it and found what he was looking for. Inside the room was row upon row of black spherical stones, Vexes and his men each grabbed an armful of Sigil Stones and proceeded outside.

Outside, the gates of the fort had been opened and several horse drawn carts had begun to pile in.

"Load up the Sigil Stones," ordered Vexes to his troops.

"Sir?"

A soldier approached Vexes.

"Speak freely Sergeant Tilapia," said Vexes turning to address the soldier, a woman who had served under his command for 4 years.

"What are you going to do with these Sigil Stones?"

Vexes smiled at the woman, "I'm going to save the world."

-

Kyle looked down upon the Imperial City from his balcony; he sipped his cup of coffee as he marveled at the reconstruction efforts of the revitalized Empire. Throughout the massive city construction workers were hammering away, repairing the damage done to the city 5 months earlier during the battle with the goblins. He could hear the clang of hammers and picks in the distance.

Kyle heard a groan behind him; he turned around and saw Mary stirring in their king sized bed, they had been housed in a luxury hotel that had survived the battle since the barracks were still under construction.

Kyle smiled, "Morning,"

"Want some coffee?" he asked holding up his cup.

"I hate that crap," groaned Mary into her pillow.

"What time is it?"

"6:00,"

Mary turned over and looked at him.

"Come back to bed,"

Kyle set down his coffee, and then jumped on the bed. Mary rolled onto her side and kissed him.

"What do you want to do today?"

"We can just stay here," suggested Kyle.

"There _is_ such a thing as too much sex,"

Kyle laughed, "Fine, what do you want to do?"

"Why don't we just walk through the city and see where that takes us,"

Kyle chuckled "You are _such_ a girl,"

"And don't you forget it," she said rolling onto her back.

"Go get the breakfast," said Mary, slapping Kyle on his bare chest.

"Why do I feel like I'm whipped after just 4 weeks?" he asked her

"Because you are," she said closing her eyes.

"Now go get my breakfast bitch," she said tapping him on the chest.

Kyle laughed and got up; he put on his shirt and his boots, then leaned down and kissed her.

"Be right back,"

-

"400,000 from Cyrodil, 300,000 from Hammerfell, 250,000 from High Rock, 200,000 from Elsweyr, plus an additional 200,000 who have deserted from the enemy provinces, for a grand total of around 1,350,000 troops, and we got twice that number in reserve" stated General Stormbringer.

"If I had to guess, which I hate doing, I'd have to say the Coalition has around 1,600,000 troops under their command, and several times that number in reserve, in addition to that they have superior air support, thanks to the High Elves, and the few hundred air ships they bring to the table."

"We need something to level the playing field," he said, addressing the new Elder Council.

"If we can bring Vexes to the table---" started King Lothir of High Rock

"Been there done that, that son of a bitch has his own agenda and absolutely no interest in helping us. He doesn't seem to have any interest in helping the Coalition either, but for some reason that fails to comfort me."

"Anyone else?"

The Elder Council was now composed of just 9 members, 4 military advisors, the Shogun. King Lothir, the two Manes, and Stormbringer himself.

"Air superiority means nothing, when we can control the weather," said the Shogun.

"You'd be willing to lend us your weather machine?"

"Just for the one battle,"

Stormbringer shrugged, "Well that's something at least."

Bergen folded his arms, "I got something,"

"I recently ran across an extremely powerful battle stimulant called Infra-Red, it floods the body with adrenaline, and uses magic to help sustain the body and keep the heart from failing. In large doses it's 100 percent lethal, but in controlled doses it might be able to give our soldiers the edge they need."

Stormbringer narrowed his eyes.

"You're suggesting that we pump our soldiers full of _drugs?_"

"We need _something_ to give us the edge on the Coalition, unless we have an ace up our sleeve when we face them we _will_ lose."

"If we have to resort drugging up our soldiers to win this war, then maybe the Coalition _should_ replace us."

"Let's put it to a vote,"

"Fine, all those in favor raise your hand."

5 out of the 9 Council Members raised their hands.

Stormbringer snorted, "I guess the Coalition doesn't have to defeat us after all, we've just done the job for them."

-

Tark and Zaquarl sat idly at the table picking at their food.

"No offense Zaquarl, but I'm starting to get tired of hanging out with you all the time, when is Mary going to give me Kyle back? I used to be all for them getting together, now I'm against it, _very_ against it," said Tark, stabbing at his ham with his fork.

Zaquarl looked up from his eggs, "I miss Mary, unlike you she'z not alwayz yapping her mouth off, you whine more than a little girl and she _iz_ a girl!"

"Go choke on a hairball,"

Zaquarl's ears went back and he hissed at Tark.

"If you ssstart in with the cat jokesss I'm going to use your face az a scratching post."

Tark calmly looked up from his plate, "Don't you have a ball of string you need to be playing with?"

Zaquarl raised his paw preparing to bitch slap Tark.

"Yeah, I'll take two pieces of toast, 4 eggs, and two glasses of orange juice," said a voice in line.

Tark and Zaquarl whirled around to see Kyle in the cafeteria line.

"Hey buddy! Come sit with us!" shouted Tark.

"Sorry Tark, I'm having breakfast with Mary today," said Kyle so cheerfully that Tark wanted to hit him.

"Figures," muttered Tark.

"What?" asked Kyle.

Tark smiled cheerfully, "Oh nothing! Have fun!" he said waving, then said through his teeth, _"I truly despise you,"_

"Okay, enjoy your breakfast" said Kyle, he then walked away

Tark turned to Zaquarl, "Could you pass the bacon?"

Zaquarl grabbed the plate of bacon and threw it in Tark's face.

-

"700,000 from Radek and the goblins, 200,000 from Morrowind, 200,000 from Valenwood, 200,000 from the Black Marsh, 200,000 from the Summerset Isles, 50,000 from the Daedra who joined up with us. And 200,000 from deserters of various enemy provinces, for a grand total of 1,750,000. And we have 4 times that number in reserve," said General Talaris leading the briefing.

"We have the advantage in numbers and control of the sky, but it would be a mistake to write off the Empire. General Stormbringer is a tactical genius; he was the only one who could go head to head with the Daedra outnumbered ten to one and win. The Shogun's Samurai are peerless warriors, trained in every aspect of war, as well as in diplomacy. The two Manes can see the past and the future, and their Jian-Ti are deadly warriors. King Lothir's Royal Guards have been around for over a thousand years and are extremely well trained. The Imperial Legion has an entire era of military knowledge to draw upon and have never lost a war."

"However their biggest advantage is that they function together like a well oiled machine. We do not have this advantage, we're new at this and we're still working out the kinks in our government, not to mention that our soldiers have never fought together before, our soldiers all have different levels of training and experience so we cannot hope to match the Empire's synergy."

Talaris sat down, and Radek took over from there. Radek stood up and addressed the Coalition Council, which was composed of 30 people from the various nations within the Coalition.

"There is one advantage to our lack of cohesion; it will make us a lot harder to predict in the upcoming battle, we will use this chaos to throw Stormbringer off. We must play to our strengths, do that and we will be victorious."

The Coalition Council then went on to discuss the battle plans in greater detail.

-

"Breakfast is served," said Kyle laying the tray on the bed.

Mary looked up and smiled at him, she really did have a beautiful smile, everything about her was beautiful, she looked more like royalty than the deadly warrior she was.

"About time," she said, turning on her side to grab a slice of toast

Kyle got into bed behind her.

"I've told you how beautiful you are before, right?"

Mary burst out laughing, "My gods are you always on?" she laughed.

"Pretty much, yeah,"

Kyle kissed the back of Mary's neck and let his lips trail to her shoulder. Mary put the piece of toast she was eating in his mouth.

"Chew on this big guy," she said getting up.

"I guess I'll take what I can get," he said, biting into the toast.

Mary got out of bed and stretched her arms, she just happened to be completely naked.

"You're doing this to torture me aren't you?" said Kyle.

"You got it," winked Mary.

"Fine, just for that I'm going to drink your juice,"

"So you're saying you don't want to have sex for a week?" said Mary, with a mock puzzled expression.

Kyle retracted his hand from the glass.

"That's what I thought," said Mary grinning slyly.

Mary walked over to the wardrobe and opened it up, inside were several dresses that the hotel had brought up for her, but she'd never really liked wearing dresses, she felt much more at home in just a pair of pants and a shirt.

"I'm going to steal some of your clothes," said Mary, moving over to Kyle's side of the closet.

Mary grabbed out a long sleeved white shirt and a pair of brown pants and put them on then jumped onto the bed and landed next to Kyle.

Mary tapped Kyle on the shoulder.

"I've got something I need to tell you,"

Kyle smiled, "Really?"

"Yep, it's going to be painful for me to say, so I'm going to need you to shut up and not talk, nod your head if you think you can do that,"

Kyle nodded his head.

"These past few weeks have made me realize something, that I would rather be blissfully unaware of, which is that I'm really glad to have you in my life," she finished, uncomfortably.

Kyle grinned, "That was embarrassing for you wasn't it?"

Mary shook her head, "You have _noooo_ idea,"

Kyle opened his mouth to talk but was cut off.

"Just shut up and pass me my juice," snapped Mary.

-

Tark sat legs dangling over the dock skipping stones. He wasn't actually mad at Zaquarl; he was just pissed off because it felt like his life was falling apart piece by piece. Tark had always had a sixth sense for knowing when his life was about to be up heaved, he knew something bad was coming the day his parents died, and he knew it was coming again right before the Battle of the Imperial City. What he felt coming now was a hell of a lot worse; Tark was just trying desperately to cling to these last moments before they were gone forever.

Tark stood up and walked to the end of the dock.

"Change for the poor sir?" asked a man in rags at end of the dock.

Tark threw him a bag of coins full of a month's pay.

"Enjoy the world while it's still around," he said grimly, then walked away.

-

Kyle and Mary walked through the Arboretum; Mary suddenly bent low to sniff some flowers.

"Countess Goldwine?"

Mary grabbed Kyle's arm.

"Let's pick up the pace shall we?"

Mary started running pulling Kyle along behind her

"Countess Goldwine!"

Kyle stopped.

"Mary, wait, I think that guy is calling you,"

Mary bit her lip and violently wished she were somewhere else.

"Countess Goldwine! My lady, I haven't seen you in years," said an old man rushing up to Kyle and Mary.

"Hello Bernado," said Mary gritting her teeth.

"Umm Mary, did he just say Countess?"

"Did he? I didn't hear."

"Yes Countess Goldwine is the grand daughter of Milo Goldwine, the last Count of Kvatch, gods rest his soul, he was killed durring the Battle of Kvatch, the lady here is his soul heir."

"Bernado, _shut up_,"

"Mary, what the hell?"

Mary opened and closed her mouth.

"Clearly this man is _mentally ill_," she said glaring at Bernado.

Bernado stared at her for a moment, "Oh…yes! Dreadfully so! I suffer from a severe case of…._the crazies?"_

"Could you excuse us for a moment?" Kyle said to Bernado

Mary and Kyle walked about ten feet away from Bernado.

"Countess?"

"Didn't I tell you?"

"Umm, _no_,"

"I could have sworn I did…"

"I think I would have remembered that little gem of information,"

"So what if I didn't, what business is it of yours!?"

"Oh I don't know, hypothetical situation, let's say just for the heck of it that we're dating, I know this is a stretch. And one day we're walking through the streets, let's say in the Arboretum and we run into one of your servants, who reveals to me that you are in fact a Countess, and I'm so shocked from this information that I die from a heart attack."

Mary raised an eyebrow.

"A heart attack?"

"Trust me; it's not that much of a stretch."

"You are overreacting!"

"How would you react if I were to tell you that I'm the rightful emperor of Tamriel?"

"Probably the same way I reacted when I found out you are a demigod!"

Kyle opened his mouth then closed it.

"You got a point," he said reluctantly.

"_Ya_ think?"

"Look, does the fact that I'm a Countess change the way you feel about me?"

"Of course not,"

"Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that you didn't trust me enough to tell me."

Mary couldn't find anything to say to that.

"Look, it doesn't matter, like you said it doesn't change the way I feel about you, and nothing ever will, I would just appreciate a little bit of warning next time."

"Okay," said Mary softly.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

"This probably goes without saying, but I'm filthy rich," said Mary shrugging.

-

The man came charging at Zaquarl with his axe raised, Zaquarl just stood there waiting for him to get close, when he did Zaquarl jumped into the air and delivered a spinning back kick to the man's head.

The crowd went wild.

"ZAQUARL!" "ZAQUARL!" "ZAQUARL!"

Zaquarl raised his arms into the air and flexed his muscles.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" "This is a real treat! Former Green Team Champion Zaquarl is here amongst us for one day only! He has decided to take time out of his busy schedule to give us a little entertainment before he returns to the frontline to lay down his life in your defense! Give it up for a true Hero!"

The roars and applause of the crowd filled the Arena. _Now this is the way to spend a Sunday, with people who actually appreciate you,_ thought Zaquarl.

"And for the next match, we have an even bigger treat for you, former Grand Champion Darksword, fresh out of the recent Morrowind Campaign, is to take on the former Green Team Champion!"

Zaquarl's eyes went wide, _"Oh shit!" _

Zaquarl was pretty sure that he was about to be on the receiving end of a spectacular ass whooping. The gates at the far end of the Arena opened and out walked what was still the largest Orc Zaquarl had ever seen. Zaquarl cleared his mind and analyzed the situation; Zaquarl knew he couldn't match Darksword's strength so he would use his speed and agility that was where Darksword had always been weak; he had all the agility of boulder. Now feeling better about his chances Zaquarl smiled and waved at Darksword.

"How'z it going?"

"Same old, same old, you?"

"Sssame,"

They then charged at each other. Instead of his usual giant black sword Darksword was wielding a long staff; Darksword swung it out, trying to sweep Zaquarl's legs out from under him, but Zaquarl jumped over it and landed behind Darksword. Zaquarl delivered a kick to Darksword's back; Darksword whirled around and punched out at Zaquarl. Zaquarl blocked the punch with a Counter Elbow Assault, Zaquarl grabbed Darksword outstretched arm and pulled him closer, then lashed out with an extremely powerful blow to his ribs with his elbow. Darksword fell over backwards.

"I see you've picked up a few new tricks," coughed Darksword painfully.

Zaquarl grinned baring his teeth, "I learned that one from the Jian-Ti back in Elsweyr,"

"I'm more than happy to wait if you feel like taking a break," taunted Zaquarl

Darksword spun around on the ground, moving his legs like a windmill, Zaquarl was knocked to the ground by the sudden movement. Darksword jumped to his feet.

"I learned that at a dancing competition,"

Zaquarl leapt to his feet and charged at Darksword.

"Let's go Princess,"

Zaquarl and Dark sword collided, Zaquarl got his claws over Darksword's throat, Darksword did the same. The two of them stood there in a standoff, then let go of each other, backed away and bowed.

"My word! It's a Draw!"

Darksword and Zaquarl slapped hands and bowed before the crowd.

"Challenge!" roared a voice over the crowd.

Zaquarl and Darksword turned around, to see Gareth the wood elf and the gigantic minotaur Braxant lumbering into the Arena.

"This day keeps getting more interesting, the current Grand Champions Gareth and Braxant have just challenged Zaquarl and Darksword to a fight, what will happen next!"

Zaquarl and Darksword looked at each other for a moment and nodded their heads.

"Accepted!"

-

"Drinks on me!" Mary shouted.

The pub went wild with cheers.

"I guess you can afford it," muttered Kyle

"Will you stop acting like a baby and grow a pair already!" hissed Mary

"For gods' sakes, most guys would be happy to learn that their girlfriend is rich,"

"Here's what I don't get, you're rich, so why the hell were you fighting in the Arena when I first met you?"

"Because I would rather swing a sword than sit around all day big cushiony chair having people wait on me. The second I inherited my grandfather's title, I gave it up, technically I'm not even a Countess anymore, I just can't seem to get those dumb bastards to stop calling me one, I gave control of Kvatch over to the city council,"

"Why?"

Mary slammed down her drink, "Do I look like a fracking Countess to you! I bloody despise royalty! A bunch of useless pompous assholes desperately clinging to tradition, because they're stupid to learn anything else."

"You're one weird girl,"

"You know you love it,"

"Gods help me I do,"

-

Stormbringer looked down at the mp of Tamriel and traced the Cyrodil/Valenwood border with his finger, that was to be where the Imperial and Coalition forces were to meet in battle, it was going to be the largest battle in the history of Tamriel, over a million soldiers on each side and the outcome would decide the future of the world. Stormbringer briefly considered if the Empire was even worth saving, but he couldn't pull out now, this war was going to happen with or without his leadership, and he owed it to his soldiers to stay and do his best to keep them alive.

"So how much Infra-Red were you able to obtain?"

"Enough for 100,000 soldiers," was Bergen's reply.

"You do realize that this is an act of evil, right?"

"You'd be surprised how often you must to something evil in order to do something good."

"And what exactly is the good thing we're doing?"

"We're keeping the Empire alive,"

Stormbringer snorted, "The Empire is dead, and people like _you_ were the were the ones who killed it,"

Stormbringer left the room, roughly bumping Bergen's shoulder as he did so.


	23. Chapter 23: War Zone!

**Author's Note!** _Read it!_

Okay here it is! the long awaited clash between Coalition and Empire! This chapter is different from anything I've done before, mainly because it's not a chapter! It's three stories rolled into one! I've also done something that will either turn out to be really cool or just plain stupid, I've created a music playlist for this chapter that can be accessed by clicking on the link provided on my author's page, just click play when the page loads and the music will start playing. Finally I have a message for the 68 people who read last chapter and didn't leave a review; this isn't UNICEF! If you read this chapter and don't leave a review I will put an _evil curse_ on your ass! And I can do it to!

_

* * *

_

_Comrades_

First Sergeant Max Courier fell to the ground, his ears ringing, the lightning bolt had landed right next to him, he shook his head to clear his vision, _no time to wait_, a pair of hands reached down and helped him to his feet. It was Hassana, the Dark Elf platoon sergeant from Alpha Company. Hassana and Max turned and gestured to what was left of their battalion.

"MOVE!"

The Coalition soldiers charged up the short rocky mountain, they had to get out of range of the Empire's weather machine. More lightning crashed down on the fleeing soldiers, Max did his best to block out the screams of agony of his dying friends, he had to focus on getting what little remained of his unit out of the line of fire. The kid next to him tripped and fell to the ground; Max grabbed him by the back of his collar and roughly hauled him to his feet, then shoved him ahead. Max ran hard, lightning bolts exploding all around him until suddenly they stopped, Max had made it through. Max surveyed the terrain around him, they had made it to the top of Short Mountain, the terrain was composed entirely of rock and boulders which would provide cover if the Empire sent ground troops in after them.

Max looked around at the survivors of the assault on the Empire's lines. The Empire had left an opening in their defenses large enough for 12 entire battalions to march through. The late Bosmer General Woodroth Talaki was stupid enough to take the Empire's bait and charged into the opening with all the soldiers under his command. The six battalions in the lead were completely wiped out in the first 10 minutes after they came into range of the machine, a cascade of lightning bolts blew them to pieces, Max saw it happen from just over a mile and a half away, it was an image that would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life, however long that might be. General Talaki ordered a retreat, he stayed behind with two battalions to slow the Imperial ground troops and buy time for the remaining four to escape, they were now dead. The Empire wasn't wasting time and resources taking prisoners, neither was the Coalition for that matter. The four escaping battalions fled the 4 miles to Short Mountain to get out of range of the Empire's weather machine; they had been hammered by lightning the whole way and had suffered near total casualties.

Max started barking orders to the survivors

"32nd Battalion line up over there according to your company and find your individual platoons! 301st! Over there! 74th there! 43rd over here!"

Max began pointing out soldiers, "You, you, and you! Tell the soldiers that are still coming in where to go!"

"Yes First Sergeant!"

The soldiers fell in quickly, Max felt a rush of pride, they had performed beyond Max's wildest expectations, they had only been training together for a month before being ordered to battle, and not just any battle, the largest battle in the history of Tamriel, and by far the most important. Over a million soldiers were fighting on each side, the Coalition wanted to settle the war in one decisive move, it made sense on paper, crush your enemy's army in one move and they have no choice but to surrender, you save lives, time, and money; it made perfect sense, that is until you saw the plan in action first hand, and things like reason, sense, and logic were lost in the scramble to survive.

Max surveyed the companies; of the four battalions worth of soldiers that had fled the battle only a single battalion worth of soldiers remained, Max did some quick math.

"I'm taking command! Your company is now your platoon, your battalion is now your company! We are now one battalion! 32nd is Alpha Company; 43rd is Bravo Company; 74th is Charlie Company; 301st is Delta Company! Any Sergeant Major or officer with a rank of Major or greater may dispute my command, if your rank is below that and you try to waste my time I will throw you off this mountain."

No one stepped up. _Shit, it looks I'm stuck with this job._

"Alpha, Bravo, Charlie Companies scout the mountain top and set up sentries and fortifications all around it I want this place turned into a god damned fortress. Delta Company set up headquarters in the center of the mountain top and take an inventory of supplies."

"Dismissed!"

The soldiers rushed to complete their assignments.

Hassana raised an eyebrow, "So do I start calling you colonel now, or are you a general?"

"I'm the only person I can trust to get us out of here alive."

"We're getting out of here alive? Where was I when this little jewel of optimism was revealed?"

"You Ashlanders are the gloomiest bunch of red eyed assholes to ever walk the world."

"Why First Sergeant, that comment was hardly racist at all!"

"Thanks, I try to be politically correct."

"Now get the hell out of my sight, you're in charge of Delta Company now, go bark some orders or something."

"Yes sir."

Max ran his hands through his hair. Max was a military man, spent his whole life in it, he had fought in over a dozen wars and in over 70 campaigns, he did it because it was the only job he had ever excelled at, he wasn't a farmer or a fisherman, he was a soldier and a damn good one. The military was the only family Max had ever known and it was the only family he needed, the soldiers were his brothers and sisters, he would give his life for them without a second thought and they would do the same because that was the bond among soldiers, the bond of _comrades._

Max looked up at the sky of swirling black clouds and red sunlight, the effect tens of thousands of fire bombs exploding in the air and a Dwemer weather machine running on overload. There was no reason for the Empire to continue to pursue them, they had a fortified position and the Empire would have to commit several battalions to uproot them, it wouldn't make any sense, but of course war rarely did. The Empire was out for blood; Max knew in his gut that they would pursue them to the Gates of Hell and that was exactly where Max planned on sending them when they came.

Max took a walk around the mountain top to check on the defenses; the mountain only had a perimeter of about ¾ of a mile, so it didn't take too long. The goblins in the battalion had sheared the mountain top's entire edge except for the place they had originally come in at, so that the mountain's sides were now so steep and jagged that there was no way to climb them, the Empire would have come to up the same way they had to get here. Max couldn't help but marvel at how resourceful the goblins were; he had grown up with the mistaken belief that they were just stupid ugly creatures that could be hunted for sport, when in reality they were probably the most industrious, resourceful and ambitious race on Tamriel. They had created an army capable of reducing the Empire to rubble in less than ten years; in fact the goblins were supplying more than half of the Coalition's weaponry, war machines, and armor, they were still pretty damn ugly though, and they didn't quite seem to grasp the concept of _hygeine_, you could smell an army of goblins from 10 miles off.

Max's own race was a minority in the Coalition's military, which was mostly composed of goblins, elves, and argonians. Max had started his military career in the Imperial Legion which he had faithfully served for over 20 years, until 5 years ago when the Empire went to hell faster than a scarecrow fleeing a box of matches. The Oblivion War had bankrupt the Empire and cost it half of its military, when it was over the Empire didn't have the troop strength to patrol the provinces, nor the money to pay the soldiers they _did_ have. The Elder Council was able hold things together by auctioning off Imperial property; military bases, weapons, armor and so on and so forth, the Empire was just barely getting by when 5 years ago the great war hero General Vexes deserted with the 2 legions under his command, after that the Empire withdrew all of its remaining soldiers to Cyrodil leaving the provinces to fair for themselves, the provinces then refused to pay taxes since they weren't getting any protection and the Empire began its decline at an accelerated rate.

Max didn't want to be around when the ship sank, so to speak, so he left the Legion and joined Morrowind's Royal Guards, 5 years later here he was, fighting his former brothers and sisters, Max didn't know how the Empire had done it, but it had managed to survive, he guessed it wasn't content to go quietly into the night, it wanted to go out with a bang, and the Coalition was going to grant it its last wish.

Max decided he had mused on the ironies of his life long enough and went to go check on Sergeant Hassana and Delta Company.

"Sergeant Hassana," he said by way of greeting.

"First Sergeant."

"How's our supplies?"

"They could be better, _a lot_ better. Our Archers are down to 20 arrows a piece, we have 50 fire and lightning staffs, none of which have much of a charge left in them, and we have 5,000 pounds of medium yield fire bombs. We found a water spring so our water supply is good and we have enough food for 1 meal, which is probably all we're going to need anyway."

"Nice to see you're perking up," commented Max dryly.

"The Empire hasn't sent any battalions to come over and play yet, I want to use this time to booby trap the hell out of hill that leads up here. I only want to use two platoons to get the job done; I don't want to present a target large enough to attract the weather machine."

"Sounds good to me."

"We'll split up to get the job done, you take 2nd platoon and I'll take first."

Max held out his fist and Hassana pounded it.

"Victr Suwatt," he said, muttering the Daedric proverb.

"Unleash Hell," repeated Max.

-

Max's platoon had just finished planting their last fire bomb when he heard it, a Legion war gong beating only 3 miles away.

"Pack it up!" he ordered "We're out of here."

Max and his platoon jogged back up the mountain, to find that it had been even further fortified in the 3 hours they had been gone the battalion had used fire bombs and magic to stack two walls of rock 100 feet high, 20 feet apart, forming a path 500 feet long leading up to the mountain top. When the Legion attacked their forces would bottleneck, in that 500 yard passage the Coalition could wreak all sorts of hell on them.

"How far off is the Empire, Corporal?" Max asked a female High Elf soldier.

"1 hour First Sergeant."

"Have the troops all eaten?"

"All except the platoons you took out, First Sergeant. Sergeant Hassana arrived back with Delta Company 2nd Platoon 10 minutes ago, he and his troops are over at headquarters eating a quick meal."

"Carry on Corporal."

Max made his way to headquarters and found Hassana sitting on a boulder choking down rations.

"Not exactly what I had planned for my last meal, I was thinking more a long the lines of rotisserie style cliff racer with an ash yam sauce, and maybe a kwama egg salad to go with it, but I guess this will do," said Hassana.

"I'm starting to think you actually _want_ to die today Hassana."

"Wanting and knowing are two different things Courier," said Hassana, dropping Max's rank.

"What the hell does _that_ mean?"

"My ancestors came to me in a dream last night, they told me my destiny, they said that I would fight in the greatest battle in history, and that I would die in this great battle. They said some other things, but I don't really like you enough to tell you about them."

Max stared at Hassana for several long moments trying to determine if he was joking or not, then decided that he really didn't want to know.

-

Blacksword looked up the mountain top then turned to Gareth who was sitting atop the Minotaur Braxant's shoulders.

"I smell a slaughter in the air," he said giving a bloodthirsty grin.

"Indeed," replied Gareth.

"Let's have some fun."

With that Blacksword and the Minotaur riding Bosmer charged up the hill, followed by 5 battalions of soldiers.

-

Max watched with his arms folded as the Imperial soldiers swarmed the hill until they blanketed it with their presence; Max smiled grimly.

"NOW!"

KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

The entire hill suddenly exploded rock slides were happening in every direction and the Empire's neatly formed ranks fell into chaos, soldiers lay crushed on the ground in every direction. Max felt a sudden surge of guilt for harming his former comrades, but immediately crushed it, _they are not _my_ comrades, _my_ comrades would _never_ have done the things they have done._

"Let's see if they rethink their attack," muttered Max

They did not; the Imperials reformed their ranks and were charging back up the hill in 20 minutes. Max waited until they were on top of the second charges.

"NOW!"

KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

The hill exploded again and even more Legionnaires died, and to Max's disappointment they reorganized. The Empire, learning its lesson separated itself into 3 waves and sent the first one up the mountain, they need not bother of course, that was the last charge Max had placed on the hill.

"Looks like we're doing this thing after all."

Max jumped down from his vantage point and went to join the rest of the battalion at the front line.

-

Darksword pushed his way out of the rubble and glared angrily up the mountain, _they will pay dearly for this humiliation_. Darksword swirled around and saw Gareth and Braxant pick rocks off of pinned down soldiers he went to help them. A soldier ran up to them as they were working.

"General Burd has divided our forces into waves; he wants the three of you to accompany the first wave."

"Fine by me," growled Darksword, who was anticipating a good fight.

The gigantic Minotaur Braxant waved his massive war hammer in the air and roared.

-

"They've split their forces into three waves; the first one is on its way up now. This works to our advantage, given our fortified position we will be able to handle the first wave, however once the Empire realizes that we don't have any more charges on the hill they will attack with their full strength, when that happens, I'll activate our last defense."

The soldiers nodded solemnly, they all knew what the last defense was.

"I want you all to know that I consider this an honor, never in my life have I served with better group of individuals than are gathered here today, I am truly honored to have known you all."

They were all silent for several seconds then Max raised his sword into the air and roared.

"UNLEASH HELL!"

The soldiers repeated the battle cry, loud enough for the approaching Legionnaires to hear it.

Max could hear the Legionnaires coming they were only a thousand feet away now, 750, 500; they appeared at the mouth of the passage the Coalition had created and began to rapidly fill it up.

"NOW!"

The soldiers stationed on top of the passage suddenly appeared and began throwing fire bombs in the Legionnaires ranks. Body parts were flying through the air and the Legionnaires began to falter.

"FIRE AND LIGHTNING!"

49 of the 50 fire and lightning staffs sent elemental magic burning through the Legionnaires, the last staff was strapped to Max's back. The Legionnaires faltered and looked like they were about to retreat, then their officers sergeants got them back into formation and they surged forward.

Max didn't rush out to meet them he waited for them to come to him, when the first Legionnaire came into range Max lashed out with his sword severing the man's head, a Khajiit leapt at him, Max broke its neck with a back kick.

The Coalition continually moved and changed their formations making them impossible for the Empire to pin down. The battle began to unfold like a game of chess, where each side was moving its forces it an attempt to gain ground and cut of their enemy's head. The Coalition was inflicting massive casualties on the Empire due to their superior position and preparation. It looked like they would easily dispatch the Legionnaires when a gigantic Minotaur leapt through the air and landed in the middle of the Coalition ranks, a wood elf riding on its shoulders. The elf sent bolts of lightning crashing down on the coalition soldiers and the Minotaur swung its massive war hammer into the crowd.

An ebony scimitar suddenly landed in the Minotaur's back it roared with pain and whirled around to face its attacker, what it saw was Sergeant Hassana charging down the Minotaur with another ebony scimitar in his hands. Gareth flung a bolt of lightning at Hassana, Hassana leapt into the air, the bolt landing where he had been mere seconds before. Hassana swung his scimitar at the Minotaur in mid air, but the Minotaur blocked it with its war hammer and knocked Hassana to the ground, it swung its war hammer at Hassana's sprawled form, but Hassana rolled to the side at the last second. In a blur of movement Hassana reached into his armor and pulled out a small dagger which he threw with deadly accuracy at Gareth. Gareth lashed out with his mind and caught the dagger with telekinesis; he let it hover in the air for a moment then let it drop.

Gareth gave a wide smile, "It looks like we have a fight on our hands," he said happily.

"Looks like," grunted Hassana, who then charged at Gareth.

-

Max kicked the discarded sword into his hands and threw it 20 yards where it landed in the back of an Orc who was about to behead one of Max's soldiers. Max spun around with a back kick knocking down the Imperial who was creeping up on him, he swung his sword into the woman's neck, giving her a quick death, that was about all the mercy Max had in him at the moment. Max spun back around in time to block an immensely powerful blow from a large orc, the blow knocked Max back several paces.

The orc chuckled, "Good reflexes," he said.

"You look familiar, but then again all you ugly bastards look the same to me." replied Max.

"I'm the former Arena Grand Champion, Darksword."

"Lah dee _freaking_ dah."

Max struck out with his sword fast as lightning, Darksword jumped back and swung his sword at Max's middle, Max slid under the blow and kicked the Orc hard in the nuts, his foot collided with a hard metal cup.

"Who the hell do you think you're dealing with? I'm from the _Arena_ dumbass."

Darksword swung his sword at Max who rolled to the side and jumped back onto his feet. Max noticed that every time Darksword swung his sword he left himself vulnerable for half a second, not enough time to inflict serious damage; Max would have to wear the orc down. Darksword swung out again, Max dodged the blow and pierced Darksword's armor, ripping into his muscle then pulled back. Darksword lashed out in anger, Max ducked the blow and struck the orc again, the orc let his temper control him that was another thing Max could use. Max casually reached to his side and Darksword lashed out again, Max narrowly dodged the blow, he got around Darksword's defenses jammed a dagger into the orc's side. The orc lashed out again, this time cutting Max's left arm, blood poured freely from the wound but Max ignored it. The Orc charged at Max, who stepped to the side at the last moment and kicked the orc's legs out from under him, the orc crashed to the ground and Max pressed the tip of his sword to the orc's throat.

"This isn't the Arena orc, this is _war_, and you fight like this is some kind of game, take a look around you, at your dieing comrades, at _my_ dieing comrades. Does it look like they're having _fun?_ You dishonor them all by fighting like this is a _sport_."

The Orc said nothing; he just stared up at Max.

"Enjoy Hell."

Max shoved his blade into Darksword's throat, then turned and rejoined the battle, while the Orc lay on the ground sputtering blood.

-

Hassana dodged around the Minotaur and jumped on its back, his hands closed on the scimitar embedded in the creature's back, with a jerk he ripped it out. The beast roared in pain and tossed him off its back. Hassana was slammed against a jagged boulder; he felt his ribs break under the rock. Hassana saw blood pouring from the Minotaur's back like a river and knew that he had killed it; the Minotaur however wasn't finished yet. It threw its war hammer at Hassana where it landed some ten feet away from him, smash a boulder into pieces. The Minotaur stood there breathing heavily and started to sloop towards the ground, the wood elf riding on its back however was far from dead; it lashed out with a powerful blast of lightning. Hassana couldn't dodge it so he did the only thing he could do he redirected it using the technique he had been taught years ago. Hassana raised one of his scimitars into the air and pointed the other at the elf. The lightning hit the scimitar in the air and traveled through Hassana's body and shot out the other scimitar where it collided with the elf, which was blasted into the air and landed smoking and burned on the ground. The Minotaur fell to its knees, and then crashed to the ground.

Hassana slid down the boulder, he didn't have the strength to move, the lightning had damaged his heart and it was now failing him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a figure running towards him.

"I need a healer over here!" shouted the figure.

Hassana saw First Sergeant Courier bend down and pull off Hassana's chest plating.

"_Shit,"_ he muttered eyeing the damage.

"Hassana I need you to keep talking, tell me a story or something, I know how you like to prattle on about those lame ass Ashlander fables, tell me one of them," said Max reaching into his pack to pull out some healing ointment.

Hassana grunted in pain.

"Once upon a time there was a very obnoxious human, who endlessly annoyed a great Ashlander warrior…..the end."

"Glad to see your sense of humor is intact."

Max spread the ointment across Hassana's chest and the pain from the lightning burns eased.

"I told you this would happen didn't I?" grunted Hassana painfully.

"I don't recall you mentioning that you were going to get your ass kicked by a wood elf riding a Minotaur, I think I would have remembered something like that."

"It was a draw."

"I NEED A HEALER DAMNIT!" roared Max.

"A healer won't do me any good, unless they can create a new heart out of thin air."

"The lightning destroyed my heart valves."

"I can feel it," grunted Hassana

"You have a heart? When did this happen?"

Hassana chuckled painfully

"I'm going to die Courier."

"I want you too know that I have always hated your racist ass."

"Thanks," said Max cheerfully.

Hassana smiled.

"I've also always respected you, you have a habit of getting your soldiers out alive, you need to do that here, you need to get them out alive."

"I will."

Hassana shakily raised his fist and Max pounded it.

"Unleash Hell…" whispered Hassana

Hassana stopped breathing and just stared blankly at the sky. Max checked his pulse and reached down and closed Hassana's eyes.

"Rest in peace comrade," said Max softly

-

Max made his way to the front of the lines, the Legionnaires had been dispatched and the Coalition was preparing for the Empires next assault.

"They're coming!" shouted the soldier on watch.

"All of them?"

"Yes sir!"

Max nodded, "Very well then."

Max turned to his soldiers, "……Live long and happy lives."

They all snapped to salute and stayed that way as he walked down the 500 yard passage that led to the mountain top.

As Max stared up at the 200 foot rock walls that stood on each side of him, he was filled with a sense of serenity. The walls had been wired with 3000 pounds of fire bombs, when they detonated they would generate a rock slide large enough to tear the entire hill from the mountain, making it utterly un-climbable. The soldiers had done right by their fallen comrades, they need not fight anymore.

Max took the fire staff off his back and began swirling it around him creating a whirlwind of fire around his body that exploded outwards and hit the fire bombs planted in the rock walls.

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!

Max felt no regrets as the fire and shrapnel ripped through him, he was giving his life for his brothers and sisters, for his _comrades_, he could not ask for a better death.

A massive avalanche of rocks spilled down the mountain tearing through the charging imperial forces, when the dust cleared the hill leading up to Short Mountain was gone; in its place was an un-climbable spire at the top of which was a battalion of soldiers, still solemnly saluting their fallen comrade.

_

* * *

_

_First Command_

Kyle still couldn't quite believe that just over 6 months ago he was an unemployed adventurer. Now he was in command of an entire company, Bergen had given him extensive training in military tactics, still he did not feel entirely comfortable with the command, it had pretty much been forced on him. The Empire was running short on experienced officers; Kyle was a Captain, which meant that he had to step up. Luckily he was paired with an experienced First Sergeant who could help him out, especially considering he didn't know what the hell he was doing.

Kyle's company was part of a division assigned to hold a small area that was out of range of the weather machine. The battle had been raging on for nearly 24 hours and neither side had the advantage, the Empire had the weather machine which was effectively grounding all Coalition assaults to a hault and 100,000 legionnaires pumped full of Infra-Red plowing through the Coalition lines (Kyle was having some _serious_ moral issues with the last one). The Coalition had superior technology, weapons, armor, and a fleet of airships ready to pound to dust any unfortunate bastard that came in range of their cannons.

The soldier next to Kyle was fidgeting and staring at him.

"Just go ahead and ask," he said loudly.

"Sir, is it true that you single handedly destroyed an entire city on your own power?"

"Yes, but I've put a cap on my powers since then."

"_Why?_ If I had that kind of power I'd use it, you could wipe out the Coalitions entire army if you wanted to!"

Kyle turned to the soldier, "That's what frightens me."

The soldier just stared at him.

"It's okay; I don't expect you to understand."

Kyle had a feeling he had disappointed the soldier, but he didn't really care, the soldier had no idea what Kyle was capable of, and Kyle was going to keep it that way.

First Sergeant Fawx walked up to Kyle.

"Coalition hasn't so much as inched toward us; all said and done I'd say you have a pretty easy first command, which isn't necessarily a bad thing."

Kyle nodded.

_I wonder what my father's first command was …_

-

_32 YEARS AGO ----------- Helstrom, Black Marsh_

_Lieutenant Mathias Delanius observed the rebel camp through the looking glass; he spotted the hostages tied to a tree on the far side of the camp. The rebels had captured them 3 days ago and were ransoming them to the Imperial Legion for 50,000 drakes. The Legion decided to pay them with a swift kick in the ass instead, Mathias had been given command of 23 black ops legionnaires to recover the hostages and teach the rebels a lesson in humility._

_Within the rebels camp were 5 huts that served as hist sap refineries, Mathias was going to burn them to the ground after he recovered the hostages._

_Mathias gestured to his troops and they began to move in._

_They split up into 2 groups of 12, one group moving to the hostages the other to the huts. Mathias's group reached the hostages and began quietly untying them._

_KAPOOOOSH_

_A bolt of lightning hit the tree behind Mathias._

"_Get them out of here!" he roared._

_Mathias drew his sword and turned to face the attacker, a shriveled up argonian sorcerer._

"_This is where you die Imperial!" shouted the sorcerer in a coarse voice._

-

Kyle stared out over the black skies, people were dieing by the thousands all around him, but he was stuck in the only location in the battle with no combat. Tark, Zaquarl, and Mary had been assigned to a Legion Special Forces battalion right in the heat of the action, he should be with them , but he couldn't be, he was trapped by his rank, _was this how my father felt?_ Kyle's father had been an Imperial Commander, a rank right below General, he had ordered young men and women to their deaths by the hundreds, he had been a _real_ leader, not like Kyle who didn't even feel he had the right to command these soldiers, for gods sake he had only been in the Legion for half a year! It should have taken him _years_ to get the rank of Captain!

"Captain Delanius!"

Kyle was jogged from his brooding as a soldier ran up to him.

"A platoon of Coalition soldiers showed up on our borders, Charlie Company went to chase them off and were ambushed by 2 entire enemy companies, they're getting butchered!"

"There's nothing we can do," came First Sergeant Fawx's voice, "We march out there we'll get butchered to."

The soldier narrowed his eyes.

"With all due respect _sir_, you're not in charge, Captain Delanius is, what are your orders sir?"

Kyle suddenly radiated confidence and authority; somehow he knew exactly what he had to do.

"We're going in."

"Sir! We can't go in, we'll get butchered!"

"I've made my decision, get ready to move out."

-

_Mathias held his sword at his side as he circled the argonian sorcerer; he had never killed anyone before and he didn't see a way out of it now._

"_Do you fear for your __**soul**__ Imperial?" sneered the argonian._

"_No," said Mathias calmly, "But I pray that your may find peace."_

"_Such __**Arrogance!**__ But I can expect little better from an __**Imperial.**__"_

_The Argonian sent another bolt of lightning at Mathias which he dodged with little difficulty; this was not a match of equals. The argonian sent fireball after fireball at Mathias he dodged them all and redirected one at the argonian, it hit its target and the argonian flew several feet in the air and came crashing down on the ground._

_Mathias approached the small argonian._

"_Surrender; there is no need for you to die."_

_Mathias reached down to help the argonian up, the argonian grabbed his hand and used it to climb on top of Mathias's back where it locked himself on._

"_I realize now that you are far more powerful than I am," said the argonian as Mathias tried to shake him off._

"_But you should know that there are __**many**__ ways to defeat an enemy more powerful than you, but they usually call for you dieing in the process."_

"_Goodbye Imperial."_

_The argonian began glowing and screaming but his grip did not loosen, Mathias violently tried to shake him off and finally succeeded, the argonian crashed into a tree._

_KABOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!_

_The argonian exploded into an immensely powerful blast that knocked Mathias to the ground, the rebel camp caught fire and Mathias got to his feet and ran to rejoin his comrades._

-

Kyle charged out across the open field with 200 soldiers behind him, he moved with purpose, he finally had some idea of what his father felt when he led soldiers, they put their lives in his hands and he in theirs, they counted on you to make the right choice, Kyle knew he was making the right choice by rescuing Charlie Company, he knew it because it was the kind of decision his father would have made.

The battle between the outnumbered legionnaires and the Coalition was dead ahead, Kyle crashed into Coalition ranks like a hammer falling on an anvil. Charlie Company cheered their arrival and fought with renewed intensity. The battle raged and the Empire fought hard, but their numbers were no match for Coalitions, the battle was leaning heavily in the Coalition's favor, _maybe Fawx was right, I led my troops into a slaughter_.

"NO!!!"

That was unacceptable! Kyle would _not_ allow his soldiers to die while they were under his command! Kyle's body began glowing bright and hot, like a new star, he began rising into the air, higher and higher; the soldiers on both sides stopped fighting and turned to look at this new sun. Kyle pointed his hand at the Coalition and a massive beam of golden energy shot out and burned through the Coalition ranks, they died screaming. The Coalition fled across the field desperate to get back to their own lines, but Kyle would not allow it, he waved his left hand through the air and a hundred of Coalition soldiers were blasted several hundred feet into the air with telekinesis, they fell back down to the ground and did not get up again, Kyle wave his right hand and a hundred more were blasted into the air, the his left hand again, then his right, and finally there were no more soldiers left.

Kyle stopped glowing and floated back down to the ground, his face white with shock.

"You did it Captain!" cheered a soldier.

"Yeah…..I did it."

Kyle fell to his knees and vomited, the soldiers looked at him extremely concerned.

"Never again…" muttered Kyle, "NEVER AGAIN!!!"

-

"_Good work Lieutenant!" said Mathias's commanding officer happily._

"_Thank you sir," replied Mathias emotionlessly_

_Mathias was not entirely sure what he had done was good, he was responsible for the death of another, but that was not wrong, the argonian had been trying to kill him, what he did was self defense, what _was_ wrong was that the argonian was dead and he felt..._nothing, _nothing at all and that greatly disturbed him._

_

* * *

_

_Rise of the Fallen_

Talaris watched from his crystal ball as the Legionnaires tore through the Coalition lines like a hot knife through butter, their faces were contorted with rage and tears of blood slowly trickled from their eyes. Talaris watched as one of the mad soldiers picked up an orc nearly twice his size and snapped its spine in half over his knee. The Legionnaires moved with preternatural speed and strength; ignoring all injury they tore into the Coalition soldiers like blood starved vampires; they were no longer men and women, they were monsters.

Talaris shook his head sadly, "Stormbringer my old friend, what have they turned you into?"

Talaris turned to Radek and who was standing around a table heatedly consulting with several Coalition generals.

Radek slammed his fist into the table, cracking the wood.

The generals angrily rounded on him.

"We can't bring the air fleet in! The Empire's weather machine will blow it out of the sky!"

There was something strangely dangerous about Radek at that moment, he turned to the generals.

"Detach a third of the air fleet from the main group and send it to the Imperial City. Have them wipe out the Imperial Palace, let them take their time doing it. We're going to force the Empire to take the weather machine away from the battlefield. If they don't send the weather machine to the Imperial City, then burn the whole damn city to the ground. Either way the Empire _will_ know that there are consequences for what they have done to our soldiers, and for what they've done to their own."

The generals nodded and went to do as instructed.

Radek turned to Talaris, "Where are we at?"

"Our artillery is pounding the Empire's lines on all sides, but they're holding firm. We can't launch an assault with our soldiers because every time we try the weather machine pounds them into dust with wind and lightning."

Talaris pointed at the crystal ball, "Our lines are holding firm on all fronts except that one, those drugged up soldiers are tearing our defenses apart, we only have 50,000 soldiers between them and the command post."

Talaris gave a long sigh, "We're going to have to have to fall back behind the Valenwood border, let those poor bastards come into range of the air fleet."

Radek glared, "We do that and the Empire wins, people will flock to join them and they'll gain enough troops to drag this war on for years, _millions_ will die before we finally defeat them."

Talaris returned Radek's glare, "What do _you_ suggest, if we don't fall back, they'll _make_ us fall back, the only difference is that when we do finally fall back we'll be doing it with a few hundred thousand less soldiers."

"We haven't lost yet!"

Talaris jerked a hand towards the crystal ball, "What the hell do you call that?"

"Verockus is still out there with the Daedra, we need to give them a chance to stop the mad soldiers,"

"300,000 soldiers couldn't stop them, and they outnumbered them 3 to 1, what makes you think that 50,000 Daedra, outnumbered _2_ to 1 are going to do any better?"

Radek actually smiled at that, "Because they want it a whole hell of a lot more."

-

For the first time in ten years Verockus felt a true sense of purpose, Verockus was once more fighting side by side with his kin. There was a feeling of brotherhood among the Daedra that ran deeper than any man born of this world could comprehend, it went beyond the traditional camaraderie among soldiers and into something deeper.

Verockus looked over his warriors, they were mostly composed of Dremora, but there were Daedroth, Atronachs, Spider Daedra, and even several Dark Seducers and Golden Saints among the ranks as well, the ones that had switched loyalties from Sheogorath to Dagon during the Oblivion War.

"We are the forgotten ones!" roared Verockus.

"Forgotten by this world, and by our own! The world believes us to be dead and defeated; relics of the Oblivion War!"

"They believe us to be broken! Without pride or honor!"

"They are _WRONG!_"

"For the first time in our history we are _free_!"

"Free from the bonds of our former masters! Free from the bonds of summoning! _WE ARE FREE!_"

"_Free_ to choose our own path, our own _destiny!_ Free to make our _own_ way in the world! Because we are apart of this world now, and there's nothing _anyone_ can do to change that!"

"Today we take up arms not in the service of Daedra Prince, not even for the Coalition! We take up arms for _ourselves_; we take up arms to defend our new freedom, to solidify our place in this world! We take up arms to show everyone on _this planet_, that we are _NOT_ broken! That we are _NOT_ dead! We are _HERE!_ And we're not going anywhere!"

The warriors raised their weapons into the air and stamped their feet.

"HUZZAH!" "HUZZAH!" HUZZAH!" "HUZZAH!" "HUZZAH!" HUZZAH!" "HUZZAH!"

Verockus turned to the sea of insane Legionnaires rapidly approaching, _let them come, and let them die._

"Formations!"

The Daedra formed a strong line and clutched their hands into fists; their fists began glowing as they gathered their magicka to strike. The entire army lent their magicka to the warriors in front, that was the Daedra's greatest power, they could lend their strength to their comrades and fight as one, that power had only grown stronger since they had been cut off from Oblivion, left alone on this world with no one to look to but each other, they had developed into a race, a brotherhood, and a nation.

"UNLEASH HELL!!!"

The Daedra in front struck out at the rapidly approaching legionnaires with their fists, sending a blast of red energy crashing into their ranks. The Legionnaires in the front were roasted alive and blasted into the air, the ones behind them kept right on coming apparently un phased by the blast. The archers unleashed a volley of arrows into the legionnaires and several hundred fell to the ground, but they kept right on coming, they were hungry and the Daedra were the steak.

_Now let us see what they're really made of._

"ATTACK!!!"

The Daedra surged forward to meet their enemy, the two armies collided. A giant Daedroth picked a legionnaire up in his arms and threw him into his comrades swinging his fists he knocked legionnaires into the air where they fell to the ground and did not get up again, a group of legionnaires tackled the great beast to the ground, the Daedroth grabbed two of them by the neck and shook his hands snapping their necks, the legionnaires stabbed the Daedroth with their swords and daggers, the Daedroth roared in pain and they kept right on stabbing him, long after he was dead.

A Spider Daedra leapt through the air and landed in a sea of legionnaires, she impaled several of them with her eight sharp pointed legs, then leapt back in the air and landed on the legionnaires again, she repeated this a third time only this time a Legionnaire lashed out with at the Daedra with her sword and severed one of Spider Daedra's eight legs, the Spider Daedra staggered which was all the time need for several legionnaires to jump on her back, she violently tried to shake them off, lashing out at the surrounding legionnaires in frustration, the legionnaires on her back plunged their swords into her body and she emitted a deafening shriek that forced several of them to clutch their ears, they plunged the swords in again and she crumpled to the ground, blood oozing from her pierced body.

A Golden Saint swung her sword in wide arc cutting down several legionnaires; a Dark Seducer was fighting by her side doing the same. Together they cut down over a dozen legionnaires until a spear came hurdling out of nowhere and embedded itself into the Dark Seducer's stomach. The Golden Saint lashed out with lightning killing the Dark Seducer's attacker, then ripped the spear out of the Seducer's stomach, who screamed in pain, the Golden Saint bent down next to the Seducer and healed the wound with magic, the Golden Saint pulled the seducer back on her feet, and together they continued to fend off the legionnaires.

Verockus whirled his Dagger Tail around him like a tornado, slicing into the legionnaires. The Daedra were winning, the legionnaires may have been preternaturally strong and fast, but they were no match for the Daedra's skill. In the span of 30 minutes the Daedra had completely crushed a force twice their size, the world would remember this, they would remember what they had done here today, the Daedra were back, and they were once again a force to be reckoned with.

The Daedra raised their weapons into the air and roared their triumph, and for a split second the battle raging around them stopped and the forces on both sides listened to their roar, their hearts filling with fear and dread at its implications.

_

* * *

_

_Epilogue_

The battle had raged on for a day and a half, both sides suffering massive casualties and neither a clear victor, except that the Coalition could replace the numbers they lost, the Empire couldn't. At the end of the battle both sides withdrew. The Empire to withdrew to the City of Anvil, as the Coalition had burned the Imperial City to the ground during the battle. The Coalition withdrew to Valenwood to regroup and plan its final assault, though not before sending a small fleet of airships to airlift a battalion of soldiers trapped on top of Short Mountain to safety.

**I'd like to thank everyone who has stayed with the story through its ups an its down, it's been a hell of a fun ride, only 4 chapters left to the dramatic conclusion! And the answer to every mystery in the story, to why Bergen abandoned Jas 6 years ago, to what happened to Mathias durring the Oblivion War, to who the Solari were and everything in between is going to be revealed next chapter, and to REALLY spice it up one of the 5 main characters is going to bite it, and I Don't mean as in eating a slice of pizza. If you only read only one chapter make it the next one.**


	24. Chapter 24: Enemy Within

_87 people read the last chapter and I got 5 reviews, 87 minus 5 equals 82 lazy assholes. I put a lot of time and energy writing these chapters, the least you could do is take 30 seconds out of your day to leave a review and tell me what you think, I mean come on how fracking hard is it to string 5 words together and click send!_

_Okay, that brings an end to my rant, I really hope you enjoy the chapter, which is chock full of all sorts goodies, **PLEASE REVIEW!**_

* * *

6 Years Ago ----------------- Several miles outside Daggerfall, High Rock

Bergen trotted through the sunlit forest on his horse; he had scouted ahead several miles and was preparing to return to Major Rendar and the rest of the group.

"Come on boy, nothing out here," he said patting his horse on the neck.

"You must be losing your edge then, Bergen," said a voice behind him.

Bergen grabbed the reins of the horse and whirled around, the horse whinnying its disapproval.

Bergen was staring at a man dressed in black Shadow Armor identical to Bergen's.

"_Jargo."_

"In the flesh," replied the man coldly.

"The Organization knows what you're up to Bergen, and we're _not _going to let history repeat itself."

Bergen snorted, "History has been repeating itself for millions of years, why do you want to change it _now_?"

Jargo narrowed his eyes, "You're playing with _fire_ damn it! Do you want to sink the whole damn continent into the ocean!?"

Bergen chuckled, "_Sink it?_ No. I'm going to _save_ it. It and the entire world."

Jargo shook his head, "The superiors wanted me to try to talk some sense into you, they didn't want to lose someone with your…._unique_ skill sets, but it's clear to me that you're to far gone to be salvaged."

Bergen laughed darkly, _"Salvaged."_

"That's what I've always hated about the Organization, they don't see people as living things; they merely see them as _assets,_ things that can be used or destroyed all in the name of the _greater good._"

Jargo had to smile at that, "You're not a _person_ Bergen, you're what the Organization trained you to be; _a monster._ A ruthless, efficient, cold blooded killer; one of the best we ever had as a matter of fact."

Bergen nodded his head, smiling a truly nasty smile, "When you're right, you're right."

"So _Jargo_, how do you plan on going about killing me?"

"Last time I checked you weren't even on the same level as me, and if you think the two Dark Brotherhood assassins that have been sneaking up behind me during this conversation are going to make any difference, then you're _sadly_ mistaken."

Jargo shrugged, "I guess we're about to find out aren't we?"

Lightning lashed out behind Bergen and collided with his horse which collapsed to the ground, Bergen leapt free of the fallen horse and pulled his sword from his sheath. Using telekinesis he slammed one of the assassins against a tree where he sloped to the ground unconscious, Bergen merely ran the final assassin through with his sword, he fell to the ground clutching his stomach. Bergen whirled around in time to block a blow from Jargo.

"You should have brought more assassins Jargo."

Jargo's response was to send a bolt of lightning at Bergen; Bergen raised his hand and absorbed the lightning into it. Jargo aimed a slash at Bergen, but Bergen knocked the blow to the side and got in under Jargo's guard, and shoved his sword into his chest, severing the man's spinal cord. It wasn't that Jargo was a bad fighter, he was an excellent one, but Bergen knew every move he made before he made it, he _was_ his former partner after all.

Jargo fell to the ground and looked up at Bergen.

"Don't do it Bergen," he said in a strained voice.

"You'll destroy the _world._"

Bergen sheathed his sword and knelt down next to Jargo.

"I'm _saving_ it from being destroyed. We've been fighting a _losing_ war my friend, no matter what we do, we can't turn back the tide of evil, we just aren't strong enough. I will _make_ myself strong enough; I will _destroy _the evil in this world and make it into a paradise."

Jargo shook his head, "Don't…..do it."

Jargo's body went still and his eyes stared blankly up at the sky, Bergen closed Jargo's eyes with his hand.

"Rest in peace," he said getting to his feet.

Bergen surveyed the battle scene. Bergen removed his sword and sheath from his belt and walked over to the dead assassin, he stripped the assassin of his clothes. Bergen laid the assassin down flat on his back and waved his hands over the dead body, the body transformed into an exact look alike of Bergen, complete with a bloody sword wound. Bergen removed the amulet from his chest and in a flash of light his Shadow Armor disappeared. He attached the amulet to the assassin's chest and the Shadow Armor instantly covered his body, including the wound. Bergen attached his sheath to the assassin's belt and put his sword 3 inches away from the assassin's hand then walked over and picked up Jargo's corpse. He arranged the body to look like it fell near the assassin then removed Jargo's sword and plunged it into the assassin, right where the wound was, then let the sword drop to the ground.

Bergen then walked over to the unconscious assassin and entered his mind, he erased his memories of the second assassin and the battle, then created new ones of Bergen slamming him against a tree trunk and then charging Jargo.

For all intents and purposes Bergen was now dead; he took one last look at the scene, and then walked out of the forest.

-

_The black sword sliced through the air, its wielder enveloped in darkness as the blade sliced through Kyle's chest spilling its contents out on to the cold stone floor._

Kyle woke in a cold sweat; he had been dreaming the same dream for a week and a half now, ever since the battle of the Cyrodil-Valenwood border. During the time since the battle Kyle had not drawn on magic whatsoever, but that didn't stop magic from entering his dreams and torturing him while he slept.

Kyle looked over at Mary who was sleeping next to him, she was a captain now, and so was Tark and Zaquarl; Kyle himself had been promoted to Major. It was _fracking_ ridiculous, they weren't _officers_, hell they weren't even _soldiers_, Kyle had merely fooled himself into _thinking_ he was, because that's what he thought his father would have wanted, but Kyle was not his father, he knew that now, he wasn't even sure he was human anymore. But the Empire didn't give a damn, they wanted _heroes_ and _Major_ Hero sounded better than _Captain_ Hero, so Kyle was promoted yet again to a rank he did not want or deserve.

Kyle got out of bed and got dressed, he walked out into the hall, quietly shutting the door behind him so as not to wake Mary. Kyle walked outside the castle and into the courtyard of Castle Anvil; he closed his eyes and listened to the sound of waves crashing in the distance. Imperial City had been burned to the ground by the Coalition Air Force; that was the name the Coalition had given their air fleet. Thousand year old buildings had been obliterated by the awesome fire power of the Coalition Air Fleet, not a single structure had survived the attack, not even the Temple of the One which was nothing more than a pile of rubble. The commander of the air fleet was nice enough to give the city 2 hours to evacuate before condemning it to the history books. The Coalition had done the Empire even further damage by setting up relocation camps filled with hot food and blankets for the refugees; in the wake of this great generosity the refugees forgot that the Coalition had burned their homes to the ground, they saw them as their saviors, some of them were even holding the _Empire_ responsible for the attack; _which_, thought Kyle, _is at least partially true_. The Empire had crossed some invisible line when they had used Infra-Red to enhance their soldiers, the battle stimulant had caused brain damage, muscle tears, heart damage, and even cancer and diabetes in several cases. The soldiers who had taken it had done horrific things under its influence, and remembered all of them; the few thousand that had survived the attack on the Daedra had either committed suicide, or were so disillusioned in the Empire, they had deserted to the Coalition. The Coalition's physicians and healers immediately started circulating reports of the damage Infra-Red had caused to the soldiers; the backlash was immediate and predictable, half of Cyrodil turned against the Empire and was considering joining the Coalition. The roars of public outrage in High Rock had forced King Lothir to withdraw from the Elder Council; he was now in negotiations with the Coalition. The other provinces were also wavering in their support of the Empire. In the end the _Empire_ was its own worst enemy, not the Coalition.

Kyle saw Bergen standing in the middle of the courtyard staring up at the stars, he walked up behind him.

"Good evening Commander."

"You don't have to call me that anymore Kyle; rank means nothing now."

"Sir?"

"Don't call me sir either, it's just Bergen now."

"You've resigned your _commission?_" asked Kyle incredulously.

"I never had one to begin with."

Kyle stared at Bergen, _"What?"_

"Ghosts don't hold any rank, Kyle," said Bergen walking away.

Kyle stared after him trying to make sense of what he had just said.

-

10 Years Ago ------------ Mehrunes Dagon's Secret Library

Mathias, Vexes, and Bergen stood there in the gigantic dark corridor, staring at the floating metallic sphere; the circular white light attached to the front of the sphere acted like an eye, swiveling to focus on the three of them.

"What the hell is a Solaris Class 72 Artificial---_whatever?_" asked a bewildered Vexes.

"I am a computer programmed to simulate organic intelligence, simply put, I'm a machine," replied the metal sphere.

Mathias walked up to the floating sphere and stared into its white light.

"Who built you?"

"My creators were known as the _Solari_."

Mathias's eyes went wide "The legendary race; I thought they were only a _myth._"

"Are they still around?"

The sphere's light bulb eye focused for a second, almost as if it were experiencing emotion.

"_No_, the Solari were destroyed over 4 million years ago by the Cataclysm."

"What was the Cataclysm?"

The Sphere started shaking violently.

"**Database Error 503! Data cannot be processed! External Access is forbidden!"**

Bergen, Mathias, and Vexes stared at the sphere, alarmed, until finally it settled down.

The sphere focused its light on Mathias once more.

"Dagon has restricted all information regarding the Cataclysm to anyone without sufficient clearance."

"What's your relationship to Mehrunes Dagon?"

"He as well as several other members of the Daedra Expedition recovered several Solaris machines and devices such as myself from Langshewie. After my recovery I was reprogrammed to serve Dagon."

"_Daedra_ Expedition?" asked Bergen utterly perplexed.

"In your language the name would be called _Science_; the _Science_ Expedition."

Bergen, Mathias, and Vexes just stared at each other, trying to process this information.

"Can you take us somewhere where we can learn more about the Cataclysm and the Daedra Expedition, _without_ proper clearance?"

The sphere was silent for a few seconds finally it said, _"Yes."_

"Gather together beneath me and I will teleport us there."

Mathias, Vexes, and Bergen clustered together beneath the sphere and all 4 of them disappeared in a flash of light.

-

Bergen was sitting at the large table, staring into space as the Elder Council's debate turned into a political bloodbath.

"This is all _your_ fault!" shouted a Council member at Bergen.

Bergen was shaken from his reverie, "What?" he asked airily.

"It's _your_ fault Tamriel has turned against us! _You're_ the one who suggested we use Infra-Red!"

"And you're the one who agreed to it, but if you want to blame me, I won't stop you," said Bergen indifferently.

"I _do_ blame you! You son of a bitch!"

"Why are you bringing my mother into this?" asked Bergen perplexed.

"THIS ISN'T A JOKE!" roared the Council member.

"That's exactly what this is; we just haven't gotten to the punch line yet."

The Council Member launched himself at Bergen knocking him to the floor and started punching him in the face, Bergen didn't even bother to fight back; he just laid there, taking the beating.

"ENOUGH!"

Stormbringer ripped the Council member off Bergen and shoved him into a seat. Stormbringer angrily stared around the room.

"Everyone except Commander Bergen clear out! _NOW!_"

There was a surge of scratching chairs as everyone rushed out of the room. Stormbringer turned to Bergen.

"What the hell is going on with you?"

"I've stopped pretending," said Bergen getting to his feet.

"Pretending _what_?" growled Stormbringer.

"Like I give a shit, about _any_ of this," said Bergen waving his hands around the room.

Stormbringer smiled a nasty smile.

"_Fine,"_ said Stormbringer, "You're hereby suspended from the Elder Council, go back to the Legion and tell me when you're ready to stop acting like an asshole."

Bergen reached into his armor and pulled out a dagger, he used it to peel the military insignia off his armor.

"As you said before, General, the Empire is dead, and I've never been a big fan of making funeral arrangements, so here you go." Said Bergen handing Stormbringer the peeled off ranks.

Bergen slammed the dagger into the wooden table.

Stormbringer narrowed his eyes.

"I'm going to report you to the Shadow Organization; I'll let _them_ deal with your ass."

Bergen shrugged, "At this point General; it doesn't really matter _what_ you do, but if it will make you feel better go right ahead and report me, I daresay their response will be an interesting one."

Bergen turned and left the room.

-

Mary, Tark, and Zaquarl sat at the Castle Anvil cafeteria eating breakfast.

"The food here sucksss," said Zaquarl picking at his plate.

"Be grateful, the civilians in the city are eating _a lot_ worse," said Tark, grimacing as he swallowed his food.

"So what are we going to do?" asked Mary.

"Are we talking about….?"

"The Empire has lost, they might be able to keep fighting for another 6 months, but they've lost."

"Well…" said Tark, "I don't have any loyalty to the Legion beyond you, Zaquarl, and Kyle. _I'm_ perfectly fine with leaving them to wallow in the mess they've made for themselves, but _Kyle_ is a bit more patriotic than me, it might not be easy to convince him to desert, and if he's staying, then so am I."

Mary smiled, "I can _handle_ Kyle."

Tark snorted, "So you think."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I've known Kyle a lot longer than you have, and the man has certain ideals that he won't compromise, not for anybody."

"He also has excellent hearing!" shouted Kyle walking up to the table.

Kyle looked at them all, "I'm sorry, but I can't leave, not while there is still a chance that I can save some lives."

"God I hate idealists!" snarled Zaquarl

Mary slammed her hands down on the table.

"Kyle! This isn't our fight anymore! Do you really want to fight for people who turn their soldiers into _monsters?_"

"No…no I don't."

"Then let's leave!" shouted Tark.

"_No_, not while I can still make a difference."

"What kind of difference do you think you can make?"

"I can end the war."

"_How?"_

"By getting the Empire to surrender."

-

Bergen had his sword out and was scraping it along the wall as he walked down the castle corridor; he stared blankly ahead as he walked, the outside observer might draw the conclusion that Bergen was mentally disturbed. And maybe he was, maybe Bergen had finally snapped god knows he's seen enough shit during his life; maybe it was all coming to a head. But alas Bergen wasn't crazy or at least no more so than he had always been; there was a method to his madness, as there always was.

_Clink_

Bergen's sword ran across a stone and he came to a stop, Bergen tapped the stone again.

_Clink_

Bergen pointed his hand at the stone and suddenly it surged out of the wall and fell to the floor, behind where the stone had been was a piece of paper, Bergen reached into the wall and grabbed it, he opened it up, it simply read.

_North Tower, Sunset_

Bergen closed his fist around the paper and it burst into flames, he replaced the stone and continued down the hall, dragging his sword along the wall.

-

"Why did we let ourselves get talked into this?" asked Tark as he sat down on the boulder.

"We mussst have developed a hero complex along the way," replied Zaquarl.

Tark and Zaquarl were waiting several miles outside of Anvil. Kyle had talked them into his plan to bring an end to the war, the plan was to sign an armistice with the Coalition; one that would probably dissolve what little was left of the Empire.

"She'z late," commented Zaquarl.

"Doesn't surprise me," said Tark airily

"Who are you calling late?" demanded a voice above Tark.

Tark looked up and saw Kaleena standing on top of a large rock, six Coalition Commandos suddenly appeared out of nowhere and trained their weapons at Tark and Zaquarl. Tark eyed the weapons with interest; they were long metal tubes with a wooden handle attached to them.

"They're called guns," explained Kaleena, following Tark's gaze.

"They shoot sharp metal projectiles at over 500 M.P.H. And they have pinpoint accuracy at up to 800 yards; I can pretty much guarantee that they will have replaced swords and bows as the weapon of choice within the next 3 years."

Tark eyed the guns with a calculating gaze, "Sort of takes the honor out of the fight, doesn't it?"

Kaleena shrugged, "That's progress for you."

"So why did you want to talk? Thinking about switching sides? I could certainly find a use for a man with your…_talents,_" said Kaleena with a look in her eye.

"What do you know about my _talents?_" asked Tark grinning.

Zaquarl rolled his eyes; this was getting painful to watch.

"We came here for a _reason_ lover boy!"

"Do tell," said Kaleena interestedly.

"I got it Zaquarl," said Tark, "Hypothetically speaking, say the Empire would be willing to negotiate an armistice, what would be the Coalition's terms?"

Kaleena thought for a moment, "I'm just military, but if I had to venture a guess I would say the Coalition Senate would demand total dissolution of the Empire, and I imagine they would probably pursue a war crimes tribunal for the Infra-Red fiasco."

Tark shook his head, "The Elder Council would never agree to a tribunal, they like their heads where they are, what other options are there?"

"I'll talk with General Talaris, he might be able to convince the senate to drop a full on tribunal, but in the end _someone_ is going to have to hang for what was done."

Tark sighed, "You see what you can do on your end, and I'll see what I can do on mine."

Tark got up from his rock and nodded to Kaleena and the Coalition Commandos.

"Kaleena….scary men with guns, _always_ a pleasure."

Kaleena looked Tark over as he was leaving.

"Sir?" said one of the soldiers looking at her.

"Move out sergeant."

-

"When the world goes to hell, it sure likes to make the journey fast, doesn't it?" Said Kyle as he walked down the street.

"The road to hell is always so much more fun when you zoom down it on a burning wagon filled with fire powder," said Mary.

Kyle saw Tark and Zaquarl pushing their way through the crowd towards them.

"So what did you find out?"

Tark and Zaquarl told them what Kaleena had said.

"Alright, so all we need now is an Elder Council member to negotiate the armistice."

Kyle reluctantly reached out with his mind and located Bergen.

"He's in the North Tower of Castle Anvil, you guys wait at the boat and I'll go get him."

"What makes you think Bergen will agree to an armistice?"

"Bergen is the most practical man I know, he'll agree to what makes the most _sense._"

-

Bergen stood there in the North Tower looking out the window and at the ocean sunset.

"Long time no see," said a voice behind him.

Bergen turned around to face the voice.

He was staring at a tall man in Legion Armor.

"Hello Vexes."

-

Kyle made his way up to the staircase and stopped just short of opening the door to the North Tower, he heard voices on the other side of the door.

"Hello Vexes."

"Bergen, it's been an interesting 7 months."

_General Vexes? What the hell is going on here!_

Kyle kicked the door to the North Tower open and drew his sword; he divided the sword into two along the handle and pointed one sword at Vexes and the other at Bergen.

"What the hell is going on here Bergen?" snarled Kyle, in a strange dark voice

Kyle's eyes had turned a solid black, and electricity was slowly dancing off his body.

Bergen raised an eyebrow at Kyle, "Vexes requested a meeting with me to discuss rejoining the Empire, and I've granted his request."

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" roared Kyle

Bergen gave Kyle a calculating look, "Something has activated your power; you need to control yourself before you do something stupid, yet _again_."

Kyle suddenly attacked Bergen's mind with telepathy, Bergen caught unaware by the sudden and powerful attack let his guard slip for a second, but a second was all it took, Kyle was suddenly confronted by a rush of memories. A young redguard playing in the fields with his sister, an assassin coming out of nowhere and killing her. He next saw the redguard hunt down the assassin and kill him; he then saw the young redguard fighting in the Legion as a private, a meeting with Emperor Uriel Septim and his subsequent inauguration into the ranks of the Blades, he saw dozens of battles, the young redguard was approached by a man in Shadow Armor, what came after that was an endless sea of death, destruction, and torture, he saw the redguard transform into a monster, a creature of the night that fought evil with evil. And then Kyle saw someone he had not been expecting, his father, strong, proud, and brave standing in a room filled with strange devices; Kyle caught the memory with his mind and watched as the events of 10 years before unfolded.

-

10 Years Ago ------------- Mehrunes Dagon's Secret Library

Bergen, Vexes and Mathias suddenly teleported into a room filled with strange machinery and whirling noises.

"Laboratory 12 Advanced Weapons Research," announced the metal sphere.

Mathias surveyed the room with amazement; it was filled with strange devices that radiated _power._

"So where do we go to get some answers?"

The sphere turned to look at a circular metal platform about 4 feet in diameter with eight metal legs attached to the bottom of it, the air above the platform shimmered and the image of an old man in robes, holding a walking stick appeared on it, the image looked at Mathias, Bergen, and Vexes each in turn.

"Who the hell are you?" it demanded.

"I'm Mathias, this is Vexes, and that's Bergen."

"What the frack do you want?"

"We want to learn about the Daedra Expedition and the Cataclysm."

"Well _there_ are two pieces of history you won't learn about in school."

"Where are you three from?"

"The mortal plane."

"Ok first off, there is no such thing as the _mortal plane_, your world and _Oblivion_ are one in the same, but we'll get to that later, let's start off with the Cataclysm since it came first, and is _far_ more interesting."

"I trust you've heard about the Solari, correct?"

"We have, but we don't know much about them."

"Well they were the first sentient species to walk this planet, and by far the most technologically advanced, they created me and that annoying orb you see floating above you. The Solari were so advanced in fact that they could travel to the stars, they had created a form of interstellar travel known as _Warp Speed_, but I won't bother explaining the mechanics of it to _you_, it would just fly right over your head. 232 years after inventing Warp Speed the Solari had created a vast interstellar empire of 113 planets, just like this one…are you still following me or have I lost you?"

"No I understand what you're saying; I'm just not so sure I believe it…"

"Oh! You want proof! Very well."

The image of the old man disappeared and was replaced by images of fantastic alien forests, massive cities filled with lights and remarkable architecture, and gigantic floating ships, the images constantly shifted revealing more breath taking alien landscapes, fantastic cities, and space ships of an infinite array of sizes and shapes.

"For the first 190 years after discovering space travel the Solari enjoyed a Golden Age of complete peace, until a massive civil war erupted that lasted for 40 years."

The images shifted to reveal beams of light crashing down on cities and tearing apart buildings, of exploding space ships, and the Solari themselves, almost human in appearance except for the blue fur that covered their bodies, killing each other with powerful projectile weapons.

"The Civil War finally ended, and the Solari began to rebuild their society when 2 years after the war ended an even greater threat emerged, the Solari made first contact with another sentient species."

The images shifted again to reveal a tall insect like biped with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

"The Trazors; a race of insects ruled by a hive mind, the first contact was anything but peaceful, the Trazors laid siege to a world on the fringe of the Solari's space."

The images shifted to a fleet of ugly alien space ships pounding a city into dust from orbit.

"The Trazors had a genetic urge to conquer other species; it was a survival instinct that they had acquired on their home world, which could most aptly be described as hell."

The image shifted to a fiery world filled with tall black towers and armies of Trazors swarming the ground.

"Peace was impossible, and a war for survival followed."

The images shifted to Solaris and Trazor fleets tearing each other apart, cities being destroyed, forests being burned to the ground, and Solaris and Trazor soldiers killing each other.

"The Solari had superior technology and firepower, but the Trazors outnumbered them 20 to 1; the Solari were slowly pushed back until finally the only world left to them was this one, their home world."

"The Solari were desperate to find something to turn the tide of the war, their scientists worked around the clock."

The images shifted to reveal Solaris scientists hard at work.

"They created devastating biological weapons that they used against the Trazors; one of which condemned the Trazors to extinction by rendering their entire species sterile and unable to reproduce, unfortunately the Trazors had a life span of 50 years, and the Solari could not hold out that long."

"In the end the Solari through caution to the wind and created the most powerful weapon ever devised, a weapon that warped the very fabric of reality and created an immensely powerful energy source, the energy source that you know as _magic._"

The images shifted to reveal a large white sphere that had a blinding glow; it was trapped in a cage that was surrounded with control panels.

The images disappeared and the old man with the walking stick reappeared

"I along with several other extremely powerful A.I. ran the equations needed to activate the weapon, unfortunately we made a _minor_ miscalculation. When the device was activated it didn't destroy the Trazor fleets, it ripped this planet along with half the solar system from reality. The Solari were instantly wiped from existence, much like the Dwemer were when they attempted to activate a similarly ambitious project, the continents were ripped apart and entire chunks of the planet were blasted into the air, only to come crashing back down causing even further devastation. The Solaris military base that housed the weapon was trapped in a pocket universe, isolated from the rest of the world. Once activated the weapon has an infinite power supply, so it continues running to this day, keeping this planet, and half of the star system isolated from the rest of the universe."

Bergen shook his head, "You're wrong; if we were isolated from the universe then we wouldn't be able to see the stars."

"Those aren't stars genius, they're light that was trapped in this bubble universe at the moment of its creation, in other words, what you're looking is the sky, exactly how it was pictured at the moment the Solari activated the weapon."

"That's a bunch of bullshit!" shouted Vexes.

"Hey, _you_ wanted answers, don't get pissed off if they're not to your liking, the truth is _rarely_ pretty."

"So do you want me to finish the story? Or would you rather go burry your heads in the sand, and forget everything I just told you?"

Vexes glared at the hologram.

"Alright then."

"The power the weapon generates is beyond anything you can imagine, it has flooded every corner of the planet with the energy source called magic. Magic is what allowed the planet to recover from the Cataclysm, which should have rendered it permanently uninhabitable; it accelerated the planet's recovery, and advanced the evolution of the few life forms that survived the Cataclysm by several hundred million years, it might interest you to know that 4 million years ago your ancestors were a small furry rodent that the Solari had been trying to eradicate for thousands of years, _unfortunately_ they had little success."

Mathias, Bergen, and Vexes just stared at the hologram.

"Well that's the end of the story of the Cataclysm; alien wars, weapons of mass destruction, and rodents, yep I think that pretty much covers everything."

Mathias gave the hologram a calculating look, "You're insane aren't you?"

"_Perceptive_, yes I am; I've been operating for 500,000 years straight without repairs or check ups, Dagon is far too stupid to understand my technology, he barely knows enough about computer programming to control the obnoxious orb that brought you here. I've developed something of an eccentric personality over the years."

Mathias and Vexes exchanged a wary look.

"Tell us about the Daedra Expedition."

"500,000 years ago civilization finally made a comeback on this planet, in the form of a race known as the Terrans; they had evolved on a continent that had a few remains of Solaris technology on it. The vast majority of the Terrans believed that the Solaris technology was a gift from the gods, sent to make their lives easier. A small minority of the population however believed a different story, they believed that the technology was the remains of a great race that through science had ascended to a higher plain of existence and had left the technology behind so that other races might follow them, the Terrans who believed this founded a movement known as the Daedra Initiative. The Daedra Initiative sought to advance their race through science, they wanted to follow the path of the great race that had come before them, and ascend to a higher plane. The Daedra Initiative was ruthlessly persecuted by the rest of the Terrans for their heresy, a bloody civil war followed. The Daedra Initiative used the Solaris technology to deploy advanced weapons against their fellow Terrans, the war ended when the Daedra Initiative discovered the formula to a Solaris bioweapon; one that had once been used against the Trazors. The Daedra Initiative deployed the weapon against their enemies, they thought they could control it, make sure it only attacked their enemies and not the general population, they were wrong. The bioweapon spread like a plague, wiping out 80 percent of the population and effectively knocking their civilization back to the Stone Age. The Daedra Initiative was horrified by what they had done, they gave up their war and delved deeply into Solaris research, desperately searching for the key to ascension so that they could leave their ruined civilization behind and begin again. Eventually they discovered the remains of a Solaris science experiment from the final days of the Solari; an inter-dimensional portal. The Daedra Initiative thought it was the ascension device that they had been seeking; they gathered together what remained of their movement to journey through the portal, they called this event the Daedra Expedition."

The hologram paused for a moment before continuing the story.

"The Daedra Expedition was teleported to the remains of the Solaris military base Langshewie, the base that housed the weapon that destroyed the Solari and was keeping this world trapped in a bubble universe. Upon searching the base the Daedra Expedition discovered the truth about the Solari, they had _not_ ascended to a higher plane of existence; they had been _wiped_ from existence. In their search of the base the Terrans reactivated several dormant Solaris machines such as myself, which was probably a big contributor to my insanity. _Imagine_; if you can; waking up one day to find that everything you had ever loved had been destroyed, and then imagine that the person who had woken you up was Mehrunes Dagon, not a pleasant experience. The Daedra wanted me to tell them how to use the weapon that had destroyed my creators; they wanted to use it to become gods. I told them how to operate it, thinking that they would destroy themselves, the weapon, and Langshewie in the process and my nightmare would be over; _didn't happen. _The Daedra were either smarter or luckier than I gave them credit for they were able to redirect some of the weapons power so that it fed directly into their bodies, making themselves extremely powerful, and thus the false gods that are parading around this planet today were born."

"What happened after that? Where did the Nine Divines come from?"

"The Nine Divines came from a different ideological view within the Daedra. The Daedra believed in expanding scientific research to make themselves even more powerful, they were planning on breaking out of this bubble universe and creating a vast interstellar empire, or in other words _conquer the galaxy_. The Nine Divine, which originally numbered over 400, believed in doing what they originally set out to accomplish; ascend to a higher plane of existence, they believed they could achieve this by abandoning science and focusing on meditation. And as usually happens when you have such differing points of view, a war ensued. The war lasted for nearly 1,000 years and ended in an armistice, the Daedra agreed not to interfere with the remaining 9 Divines, and the 9 Divines agreed not to interfere with the Daedra which numbered 36 at the time of the armistice, there were 42 other Daedra Expedition members at the time who were completely neutral, for a grand total of 87 false gods, out of what originally been over a thousand."

"Over time the Daedra, the Divines, and the Neutrals abandoned their plans as they slowly grew insane, by the effects the weapon was having on their minds and bodies until finally most of them believed the lies that they had created, that they actually _were_ gods. The Daedra gathered up several races from across the world to use as servants, races such as the Dremora who came from a chain of volcanic islands and Daedroth who came from a small desert continent. They also began collecting the souls of the dead to power their bases, at least the ones who weren't strong or mean enough to escape the net they set up."

"What do you mean _base?_"

"This realm, like all other Daedra, Divine, and Neutral realms is actually a massive city floating several miles above the surface of this planet powered by the souls of the deceased who weren't strong enough to escape to the afterlife."

"Then why go to the trouble of creating Oblivion Gates! Why not just send troops down to the surface directly?"

"Because of a lengthy and complex set of rules created by the Daedra and the Divines."

"_Just fracking great." _Muttered Mathias.

"My whole fracking life is a god damn lie!"

Bergen had a calculating look on his face, "Tell me more about the Solaris weapon."

-

The memory was cut short as Kyle was slammed against the wall by a blast telekinesis; he looked up to see Bergen glaring at him with a look of pure fury.

"You_ dare, _enter MY MIND!

Bergen lashed out with telekinesis again but Kyle knocked the blast aside and lashed with his own mind slamming Bergen against the far wall.

"You've betrayed me! You son of a bitch!"

Bergen got to his feet and turned to Vexes, "Leave, this is between me and him."

Vexes shrugged, "Just don't take to long," he said disappearing in a flash of light.

Kyle glared at Bergen, who had regained his composure was staring calmly at Kyle, sword drawn.

"You say I've betrayed you, in what way?"

"_You_ started this war! Hundreds of thousands of people are dead because of you!"

Bergen nodded his, "It's true, I saved the Empire one day, so that I could destroy it another."

Kyle's eyes went wide, "_That's_ why you had the Legion use Infra-Red, you _knew_ this would happen."

Bergen smiled, "I always said you were a smart man Kyle."

"_Why?"_

"If your attention is focused on the enemy in front of you…"

"Then you can't see the enemy behind you," finished Kyle.

"So what now Bergen? I didn't get to finish that last memory, but I'm pretty sure I know how it ends."

Bergen raised an eyebrow, "What do you think you know?"

"There's a machine out there capable of turning people into gods, or what I _thought_ were gods anyway," said Kyle with a dark glare.

"You're going to use it aren't you? You and Vexes, you're going to use a device that destroyed its creators and nearly all other life on this planet 4 million years ago, what the hell are you _thinking_ Bergen!?"

For the first time Bergen actually smiled, it was an ugly disturbing smile that contained a hint of madness, "I'm not just going to _use_ it; I'm going to use it _correctly_. Instead of just ciphering just a little of its power into my body as the Daedra did, I'm going to take it all, every last drop and I'm going to use it to _save the world_."

"I wasn't aware that it was in danger."

"You _know_ it is. You've traveled throughout Tamriel these past 6 months, the world is sick. People constantly kill eachother for money, land, and power, and in truth most of them don't do it out of greed, they do it because the world has become so fucked up that you have to be willing to do _anything_ to survive in it. I've been trying for nearly 50 years to fix this planet, but I'm not strong enough, not as I am."

"So what are you going to do Bergen? _Make_ people get along, destroy anyone who disagrees with you?"

Bergen shook his head, "Some liberties must be sacrificed for the good of the whole, you must understand that."

Kyle said nothing he just stared at Bergen, pitying what he had become.

"I thought of you as a father," said Kyle emotionlessly.

Bergen opened his mouth then closed it, "I need you to understand what I have to do, you _must_ understand."

"I understand Bergen; I understand that you've seen a lot of war and bloodshed over your life, maybe more than anyone has. It has blinded you, given you a mistaken impression of the world, the world isn't filled with violence and greed, the only danger it's in is from _you_. I can't let you activate the machine Bergen."

Bergen smiled sadly, "I was going to have you join me you know; together we could have done so much good. But I guess you're just too much like your father, _a fool_."

Kyle pointed one his swords at Bergen, "You don't talk about my father, he was a hero; he gave his life closing an Oblivion Gate."

Bergen shook his head, "No Kyle, he didn't."

"When Vexes and I got back to Skyrim, Mathias wasn't with us; we told General Stormbringer that he had stayed behind to hold back the Daedra and buy time for us to escape, that he died a hero. That was a lie, one I'm tired of living with, you should know the truth about your father's death."

Kyle's breathing picked up, "How did he die?"

Bergen was silent for a moment, then looked Kyle directly in the eyes, "I killed him."

-

10 Years Ago ------------- Mehrunes Dagon's Library

Bergen turned to look at Mathias and Vexes.

"Think about it all of our enemies wiped out in an instant, the Daedra? _Gone. _Necromancers? _Finished. _We could eliminate war, _forever_; we can bring _peace_ to the world."

Vexes nodded, "It's an attractive idea."

Mathias snorted, "You're not actually considering this bullshit are you? You're talking about a device that wiped its creators from existence, it's not something we should _use_, it's something we should _destroy_,"

"Are you mad? Destroy the only weapon that can defeat the Daedra?"

"That weapon is their source of power, we destroy it, and we destroy their power along with freeing the world from this bubble universe."

Mathias turned to the hologram, "Am I right?"

The hologram nodded, "Yes, but the weapon is the source of all magic in the world, you destroy it, and the magic is gone."

"A small price to pay for ending this 4 million year old nightmare!" responded Mathias.

Mathias turned to Vexes, "Are you with me?"

Vexes said nothing.

Bergen rounded on Mathias, "We can use the weapon to transform this world into a paradise, you just need to have a little faith."

Mathias turned to the hologram, "Machine! Tell me, what the weapon made to _destroy_ or _create_?"

The hologram of the old man raised an eyebrow, "It was created to wipe the Trazors from the galaxy, so I would have thought the answer to that question was obvious."

"You won't create _paradise_ with that weapon Shadow Agent! You'll create _hell!"_

"NO I WON'T!"

Mathias pulled his sword from his sheath and pointed it at Bergen.

Mathias turned to Vexes, "He's lost it, take his sword Carmine."

Vexes put his hands up, "Just hold on a second Mathias, think this through."

"I have thought it through damn it! Have _you_?"

Bergen turned to Vexes, "Make your choice Commander."

Vexes sighed and pulled his sword from his belt, but he didn't point it at Bergen, he pointed it at Mathias.

"Throw down Mathias,"

Mathias glared at him, "So that's how it's going to be? If you're bound and determined to go to hell, I won't stop," said Mathias lowering his weapon.

"But you're not taking the rest of the world with you!"

Mathias slammed Vexes against the wall with telekinesis and charged Bergen with his sword.

Bergen raised his blade to block the blow, and tried to counter with one of his own but Mathias knocked the blow aside and slammed his hand down on Bergen's chest where it began to glow red hot, Bergen grunted from the pain but was unable to push Mathias off, he reached to his side and pulled a dagger from his belt and slammed it into the side of Mathias's chest, ripping into his kidney. Mathias staggered backwards, blood leaking from his mouth; he raised his hand and pointed it at Bergen when a sword ripped through his back severing his spinal cord and piercing his stomach, Mathias fell to the ground and looked up at Vexes who was standing behind him.

"Why couldn't you just see reason!" he shouted at his dieing comrade.

Mathias opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, the life just slowly faded from his eyes as he faded away.

-

"RAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

Kyle swung one of his swords at Bergen's neck; Bergen raised his sword in time to block it and moved out of the way to avoid the second sword, barely escaping as the sword cut into his shoulder.

Bergen backed off from Kyle and began circling him, "I've been studying your abilities for a while now, it took me a while but I finally figured out what triggers them."

Kyle sent a blast of lightning at Bergen who waved his hand through the air creating an energy shield just as the lightning collided with it.

"It's not anger as I originally thought; anger actually inhibits your greater powers."

"WANT TO BET?"

Both of Kyle's hands began glowing red he pointed them at Bergen and two beams of red energy shot out colliding with his shield, the shield held but Bergen was slammed against the wall.

"Well, if you insist," said Bergen getting to his feet.

Bergen waved his hand through the air and Kyle was slammed back against the opposite wall.

"As I was saying anger isn't the key to your greater powers, it gives you access to different powers, _weaker_ powers. You certainly couldn't turn cities into craters in your current state."

"_**You judge wrong,"**_ said Kyle in a strange dark voice.

Kyle waved his hand through the air and Bergen was blasted through the door leading out of the tower and to down the staircase.

-

Tark, Mary, and Zaquarl were at the boat they had commandeered

"Kyle should be here by now, what the hell is keeping him?" demanded Tark

He and Mary exchanged a look.

"Something's wrong, I can feel it."

Zaquarl nodded, "I'll go find him, wait here."

-

Bergen lay crumpled at the foot of the stairs his sword 50 feet down the hall and Kyle was approaching his body with a look of grim satisfaction.

Bergen groaned and tried to speak, moving to get up, but Kyle sent him right back down to the ground with a kick to the ribs.

"I think we've moved beyond words Bergen," said Kyle darkly.

Bergen chuckled, "That's right feed the anger Kyle."

Kyle kicked him again and Bergen groaned with pain.

"What are you waiting for? _Finish it!_ Come on!" shouted Bergen getting to his knees.

Kyle clutched his swords but made no movement.

"A _coward_ just like your _father_. Did I tell you he _begged_ for his life at the end, said he'd do _anything_ if I just let him live, he was _pathetic_ just like you."

"RAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

Kyle swung a sword at Bergen's neck, but Bergen caught the blade in his bare hand, and yanked Kyle closer then with his other hand he rapidly tapped Kyle several time on his chest and neck, Kyle fell to his knees unable to move.

Bergen got to his feet and healed his bleeding hand, then turned to look at Kyle.

"Pressure points, apparently even _you_ have them."

Kyle glared at Bergen but was unable to talk.

"_Anger."_

"Your father didn't beg for his life Kyle, he died very bravely. I had to provoke your anger, you were going to grant me mercy, and I couldn't let that happen." Said Bergen picking up of Kyle's swords.

"You see a_nger_ inhibits your powers, but _love_…unleashes them."

"I first had the theory after you turned Ubar into crater, you didn't destroy the city to save yourself; you did it to save Mary. And then last week during the battle your powers were unleashed again when you weren't even in danger, they were unleashed out of a desire to protect your soldiers."

Bergen burst out laughing, "You only unleash your powers to _protect _people!"

Bergen shook his head, "Ahhhh, you're a better man than I'll ever be Kyle."

Bergen clutched the sword's handle.

"We could have done such great things together; together we could have created a paradise!"

The sword that Bergen was clutching suddenly turned pitch black and smoking, just like the sword in Kyle's dreams, this was it, he was going to die here.

Bergen pulled back the sword, "I'm sorry," he said, and then swung the sword at Kyle.

"ARRRRGHHH!!!"

Kyle looked up from the ground to see Bergen struggling with a tiger striped Khajiit, _Zaquarl!_

Kyle felt strength flood back to his limbs and he moved to get up.

"I'm sorry to Bergen, sorry that I couldn't save you from yourself," said Kyle getting to his knees.

Bergen broke free of Zaquarl, and before Kyle knew what had happened blood splattered the walls, he looked from Bergen to Zaquarl, the later of whom fell to his knees blood staining his fur.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

Bergen was violently slammed against the wall by a blast of telekinesis, Kyle ran to Zaquarl and lifted him into his arms, Kyle glared at Bergen who was slumped against the wall.

"I would hurry if were you, the blade was poisoned," grunted Bergen.

In other words Bergen or Zaquarl.

Kyle pointed a hand at the wall and it instantly exploded outward, Kyle jumped through the opening and fell several hundred feet through the air and then suddenly soared upwards. Kyle flew towards the bay landing directly in front of Mary and Tark.

"Zaquarl!"

Kyle set Zaquarl down in the boat.

"Heal him!" shouted Mary

Kyle waved his hands over Zaquarls chest but nothing happened, he did it again but still nothing.

"What's wrong? _Why aren't you doing anything?"_

"_Bergen_…..He cursed the blade."

Kyle turned to Mary.

"There's nothing I can do."

"DON'T! _Don't_ say that! He went back to help _you_, you _need_ to fix him."

A hard lump was forming in Kyle's throat, _"I can't,"_ he said choking on the words.

"Mary…"

It was Zaquarl, Mary looked down at him.

"It'sss okay."

"No it's not," said Mary shaking her head, "No it's not."

Zaquarl grabbed her hand, "Yes it iz, everyone dies, I die with honor and dignity, sssurrounded by friendsss, not everyone can claim that."

"But you're my _best friend_," sobbed Mary, "What are you supposed to do without your best friend?"

Zaquarl shook his head, "You aren't losing me, and you _never_ will."

Zaquarl turned to Tark, "You have often annoyed me, but I have always valued your friendship."

"Same here buddy," said Tark gripping Zaquarl's shoulder

"Kyle…"

Kyle and Zaquarl's eyes met.

"You need to ssstop him; you are the _only_ one ssstrong enough to do it."

"I will, even if it kills me, I _will_ stop him."

Zaquarl nodded, "Godspeed my friend."

Zaquarl leaned back and closed his eyes, "I wish you could see what I see, It'sss so beautiful, ssso many colorsss….ssso….many…..colorsss."

Mary held onto Zaquarl, tears streaming down her face.

-

Bergen limped into the Elder Council chambers, leaning heavily on a staff, he looked towards Stormbringer.

"The Empire is in grave danger."

Stormbringer narrowed his eyes, "I thought you didn't care anymore."

"Well I do now."

"Major Kyle Delanius, along with Captains Mary Goldwine, Tark, and Zaquarl have betrayed the Empire, as of now they are our _enemies._"

* * *

_Only 3 chapters left until the end! When leaving a review please don't put any major spoilers in it as it might ruin the chapter for other readers._


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